JUDGMENT - M.B. SHAH, C.J. :---This Court suo motu took notice of an Article that appeared in the daily Indian Express dated 13th January, 1996. The said report disclosed a very shocking and alarming state of affairs regarding sex workers operating in the city of Mumbai. The report indicated that minor girls were illegally confined and were forced to be sex workers. As per the said newspaper report :

i)Girls who are rescued from the brothel houses are harassed and their guardians are required to pay large sums for providing protection;

ii)Large sums are regularly extorted from brothel owners and prostitutes for giving them protection;

iii)There are no efforts by the State Government to rehabilitate 40,000 and odd sex workers;

iv)Minors are procured by local agents as prostitutes and are illegally confined in brothel house;

v)Many prostitutes whose blood was tested were having HIV positive. In so far as the report about AIDS amongst sex workers, it is stated that out of the 70,000 prostitutes in the red-light district, 65% were already infected with the dreaded AIDS disease and had been tested HIV positive.

2.Based on the said report the Court passed an order on 17th January, 1996 and is

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