These are related appeals from the judgment of the learned III Presidency Magistrate, Madras, in C.C. No. 6640 of 1959 on his file. The learned Magistrate convicted one B.S. Babu (accused 1) and his sister Ratnamala (accused 3) under section 3 (1) of the Suppression of Immoral Traffic in Women and Girls Act (Central Act CIV of 1956), and sentenced each to suffer rigorous imprisonment for one year and also to pay a fine of Rs. 10, in default to suffer rigorous imprisonment for one week.

Certain questions of considerable importance, both with regard to the implementation of certain provisions of this Act, and with regard to the entire technique adopted by the authorities in enforcing this piece of legislation, have arisen in these appeals. I propose to deal with them at some length, for they are certainly questions of importance to the citizen as well as the State. But, before doing so, I shall briefly set out the facts which the prosecution has claimed to have established by the evidence. I shall later advert to certain aspects of the testimony in greater detail, but a broad outline of the facts will be essential as an introduction to the questions actually argued before me