{"id":176934,"date":"2017-12-19T15:53:04","date_gmt":"2017-12-19T10:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/?p=176934"},"modified":"2017-12-19T15:53:04","modified_gmt":"2017-12-19T10:23:04","slug":"customers-brothel-house-not-offenders-immoral-traffic-prevention-act-1956","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2017\/12\/19\/customers-brothel-house-not-offenders-immoral-traffic-prevention-act-1956\/","title":{"rendered":"Customers in a brothel house are not offenders under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956"},"content":{"rendered":"

Karnataka High Court:<\/strong> A criminal petition was filed under Section 482 CrPC to quash the proceedings in a criminal case filed under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956, where a Single Judge Bench comprising of K.N. Phaneendra, J. held that the offences under ITP Act or under Section 370\u00a0 IPC are not attracted as far as the customers in a brothel house are concerned.<\/p>\n

The petitioners in the instant petition were customers in a brothel house found by the police during a raid. The petitioners were charged as accused in a criminal case for offences punishable under Sections 3, 4, 5 and 7 of the ITP Act. The High Court perused the entire charge-sheet papers and also referred to a few of the earlier decisions pronounced by it on the same or similar matter.<\/p>\n

On perusal of the earlier decisions as well as various provisions of the ITP Act, the High Court was of the view that offences under the said sections were not attracted to the customers in a brothel house. It was observed that though the customers virtually encourage prostitution, but in the absence of any specific penal provision, they can not be said to be liable for prosecution for the above said offences. Accordingly, the petitions were allowed and all the proceedings pending against the petitioners in the said criminal case were quashed. [Chandru S v. State, Crl. Petition No. 5059 of 2017, order dated December 7, 2017]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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HC | Customers caught in brothel cannot be prosecuted for immoral trafficking under Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, 1956","author":"Editor","date":"April 15, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Karnataka High Court: M Nagaprasanna J. allowed the criminal petition and quashed the proceedings in Crime No.347\/2021 pending before the 32nd Additional CMM Court, Bangalore The facts of the case are such that the petitioner was a customer in the brothel when the search was conducted by the respondent police.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Case Briefs"","block_context":{"text":"Case Briefs","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/category\/casebriefs\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Karnataka High Court","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/New_Karnataka.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/New_Karnataka.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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alleged to be merely a customer.\u201d","rel":"","context":"In "Case Briefs"","block_context":{"text":"Case Briefs","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/category\/casebriefs\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"no inducement of prostitution","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/no-inducement-of-prostitution.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/no-inducement-of-prostitution.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/no-inducement-of-prostitution.webp?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/no-inducement-of-prostitution.webp?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":166643,"url":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2017\/11\/01\/special-police-officer-mandated-s-132-immoral-traffic-prevention-act-1956-cannot-rank-inspector-police\/","url_meta":{"origin":176934,"position":2},"title":"Special Police Officer as mandated by S. 13(2) of Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 cannot be below the rank of Inspector of Police","author":"Saba","date":"November 1, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Karnataka High Court: While deciding a criminal petition filed under Section 482 of CrPC, a Single Judge Bench comprising of Aravind Kumar, J. allowed the petition and quashed the proceedings pending against the petitioner on the file of Civil Judge. 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A sex worker cannot be denigrated as a product\u201d","rel":"","context":"In "Case Briefs"","block_context":{"text":"Case Briefs","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/category\/casebriefs\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Individuals Availing Sex Workers Can Be Prosecuted","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Individuals-Availing-Sex-Workers-Can-Be-Prosecuted.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Individuals-Availing-Sex-Workers-Can-Be-Prosecuted.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Individuals-Availing-Sex-Workers-Can-Be-Prosecuted.webp?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Individuals-Availing-Sex-Workers-Can-Be-Prosecuted.webp?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":279678,"url":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2022\/12\/15\/can-a-customer-in-a-brothel-be-proceeded-against-criminally-under-the-immoral-traffic-prevention-act-1956-kerala-high-court-answers-legal-research-legal-news-updates\/","url_meta":{"origin":176934,"position":4},"title":"Can a \u2018customer\u2019 in a brothel be proceeded against criminally under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956; Kerala High Court answers","author":"Editor","date":"December 15, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Kerala High Court held that the words \u2018person with whom such prostitution is carried on\u2019 as appearing in section 7(1) of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 will include a \u2018customer\u2019. Thus, a customer in a brothel can be proceeded against criminally.","rel":"","context":"In "Case Briefs"","block_context":{"text":"Case Briefs","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/category\/casebriefs\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Kerala High Court","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/MicrosoftTeams-image-310.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":201920,"url":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2018\/09\/18\/taking-the-services-of-a-prostitute-cannot-be-penalized-under-ipc-and-immoral-traffic-prevention-act-karnataka-high-court\/","url_meta":{"origin":176934,"position":5},"title":"Taking the services of a prostitute cannot be penalized under IPC and Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act: Karnataka High Court","author":"Bhumika Indulia","date":"September 18, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Karnataka High Court: A Single Judge Bench comprising of K.N. Phaneendra, J. allowed a petition wherein the bench stated that a customer encouraging the services of a prostitute cannot be held liable for any prosecution. The petition was filed under Section 482 of CrPC in order to quash the entire\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Case Briefs"","block_context":{"text":"Case Briefs","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/category\/casebriefs\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176934\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}