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2011 Supreme(SC) 1389
SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
MARKANDEY KATJU, GYAN SUDHA MISRA, JJ.
Budhadev Karmaskar - Appellant
Versus
State of West Bengal - Respondent
Criminal Appeal No. 135 of 2010
Decided on : 02-08-2011
P.P. Malhotra, ASG, Pradip Ghosh, Jayant Bhushan, T.S. Doabia, Ashok Bhan, Ratnakar Dash, I. Venkatanarayana, R. Sundaravaradan, Sr. Advocates, A. Mariarputham, AG, Dr. Manish Singhvi, Shail Kr. Dwivedi, Mnjit Singh, AAG, Pijush K. Roy, Ms. Reena George, Gautam Talukdar, Lajja Ram, Gaurav Sharma, D.S. Mahra, Ms. Sushma Suri, Ms. Sadhana Sandhu, Mohd. Khairati, Irshad Ahmad, Vijay Verma, Ms. Anitha Shenoy, Ashutosh Sharma, Ms. Alka Sinha, Anuvrat Sharma, D. Mahesh Babu, Ramesk Allanki, V. pattabhi Ram, Ms. Savita Dhanda, Ranjan Mozumbar (for M/s. Corporate Law Group, Anil Srivastava, Rituraj Biswas Gopal Singh, Manish Kumar, Ms. Anjani Aiyagari, S. Wasim A. Quadiri, Ms. Anik Katiyar, Ms. Hemantika Wahi, Ms. Suveni Banerjee, Ashwini Kumar, Tarjit Singh, Kamal Mohan Gupta, Abhishek Sood, Rohit Kr. Singh, Sunil Fernandes, ms. Astha Sharma, P.V. Dinesh, Jogy Scaria, Sanjay Kharde (for Ms. Asha G. Nair), Kh. Nobin Singh, Balaji Srinivasan, Radha Shyam Jena, Kuldip Singh, R.K. Pandey, H.S. Sandhu, K.K. Pandey, Mohit Mudgil, Ms. Aruna Mathur, Avneesh Arpatham, Yusuf Khan, Ms. Megha Gaur, Ms. Arputham, Aruna and Co., Aniruddha P. Mayee, Abhijit Sengupta, B.P. Yadav, Ms. Anima Kujur, Anil K. Jha, Dharmendra Kr. Sinha, Ms. Chhaya Kumari, V.G. Pragasam, S.J. Aristotle, Prabu Ramasubramanian, Ms. Savita Singh, Anand Grover, Ms. Tripti Tandon, Ms. Shivangi Rai, Ms. Amritanandanda Chakravorty, Ms. Shefali Malhotra, Prakash Kumar Singh, Ravi Kant, Ms. A. Subhashini, Ms. Aishwarya Bhati, C.D. Singh, K.N. Madhusoodhanan, M.T. George, Subramonium Prasad, Sunil Kumar Singh, Ms. Mukti Singh, Jatinder Kr. Bhatia, Manpreet Sing Doabia, Ms. Kiran Bhardwaj, Edward Belho, A. Athuimei R. Naga, K. Inatoli Sema, Nimshim Voshum and Ranjan Mukherjee, Advocates.
Headnote:
Constitution of India - Article 21 – Jurisdiction – Acquittal – Evidence - This is a case of brutal murder of a sex worker - Sex workers are also human beings and no one has a right to assault or murder them - A person becomes a prostitute not because she enjoys it but because of poverty. Society must have sympathy towards the sex workers and must not look down upon them - They are also entitled to a life of dignity in view of Article 21 of Constitution – Held, Court are of opinion that States should not only come out with schemes indicating therein rehabilitation of sex workers but they should also demonstrate their commitment to cause by coming out with some concrete results at least in phases - So by next date we expect State counsels to come out with some effective feedback whether at least a few sex workers have been offered any alternative employment, in case they were willing for rehabilitation - Court also leave it to Chairman of Panel constituted by us to come out with some suggestions in what way sex workers through State Governments and metro cities can come out with effective results in this regard and by way of illustration at least they must come out with report of rehabilitation of at least some of the sex workers in each of the States - Court make it clear that any rehabilitation of sex workers will not be coercive in any manner and it shall be voluntary on part of sex workers - Chairman of the Panel with assistance of NGOs can provide a list by next date at least of those sex workers who are living under dire circumstances and are willing for rehabilitation - Court are informed that some of NGOs have a list of figures and localities of such sex workers who are immediately willing for rehabilitation and want to get out of flesh trade - Court are fully conscious of fact that simply by our orders the sex workers in our country will not be rehabilitated immediately - It will take a long time but Court have to work patiently in this direction - What we have done in this case is to present situation of sex workers in country in correct light so as to educate public - It is ultimately people of country particularly young people, who by their idealism and patriotism can solve massive problems of sex workers – Order accordingly
ORDER :
"Pinha tha daam-e-sakht qareeb aashiyaan ke
Udhne hi na paaye the ki giraftaar hum hue"
Mirza Ghalib
1. This exercise was initiated by us by our order dated 14th February 2011. By that order we dismissed the appeal of the appellant, who was convicted for murdering a sex worker in a red light area in Kolkata by battering her head repeatedly against the wall and the floor of a room. Having dismissed the appeal we suo motu converted the case into a PIL by the same order in order to address the problems of sex workers in the country.
2. In our order dated 14th February, 2011 we observed :
"This is a case of brutal murder of a sex worker. Sex workers are also human beings and no one has a right to assault or murder them. A person becomes a prostitute not because she enjoys it but because of poverty. Society must have sympathy towards the sex workers and must not look down upon them. They are also entitled to a life of dignity in view of Article 21 of the Constitution.
In the novels and stories of the great Bengali writer Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyaya, many prostitutes have been shown to be women of very high character, e.g., Rajyalakshmi in 'Shrikant', Chandramukhi in 'Devdas', etc.
The plight of prostitutes has been depicted by the great Urdu poet Sahil Ludhianvi in his poem 'Chakle' which has been sung in the Hindi film Pyasa "Jineh Naaz Hai Hind Par wo kahan hain" (simplified version of the verse 'Sana Khwan-e-taqdees-e-Mashrik Kahan Hain').
We may also refer to the character Sonya Marmelodova in Dostoyevsky's famous novel 'Crime and Punishment'. Sonya is depicted as a girl who sacrifices her body to earn some bread for her impoverished family.
Reference may also be made to Amrapali, who was a contemporary of Lord Buddha".
3. We further observed :
"Although we have dismissed this Appeal, we strongly feel that the Central and the State Governments through Social Welfare Boards should prepare schemes for rehabilitation all over the country for physically and sexually abused women commonly known as prostitutes as we are of the view that the prostitutes also have a right to live with dignity under Article 21 of the Constitution of India since they are also human beings and their problems also need to be addressed.
As already observed by us, a woman is compelled to indulge in prostitution not for pleasure but because of abject poverty. If such a woman is granted opportunity to avail some technical or vocational training, she would be able to earn her livelihood by such vocational training and skill instead of by selling her body.
Hence, we direct the Central and the State Governments to prepare schemes for giving technical/vocational training to sex workers and sexually abused women in all cities in India. The schemes should mention in detail who will give the technical/vocational training and in what manner they can be rehabilitated and settled by offering them employment. For instance, if a technical training is for some craft like sewing garments, etc. then some arrangements should also be made for providing a market for such garments, otherwise they will remain unsold and unused, and consequently the woman will not be able to feed herself".
4. Subsequently by another order we constituted a panel headed by Mr. Pradip Ghosh, Senior Advocate as the Chairman and including Mr. Jayant Bhushan, Senior Advocate, Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC), Usha Multipurpose Cooperative Society (UMCS) and Roshni through its founder Ms. Saima Hasan. We also directed the Central Government to provide some accommodation as well as infrastructure, staff etc. to the panel, and grant it adequate funds.
5. Today, an interim report has been submitted to us by the panel stating that the panel held its first meeting on 25th July, 2011 at 04.30 P.M. and discussed various aspects of the problems relating to sex workers. The report shall be taken on record.
6. We have perused the report. It shows that the panel has set about the task assigned to it in right earne
