{"id":279678,"date":"2022-12-15T13:30:51","date_gmt":"2022-12-15T08:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/?p=279678"},"modified":"2022-12-19T16:25:35","modified_gmt":"2022-12-19T10:55:35","slug":"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","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"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\/","title":{"rendered":"Can a \u2018customer\u2019 in a brothel be proceeded against criminally under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956; Kerala High Court answers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

   <\/p>\n

Kerala High Court:<\/b> In a petition questioning that can a ‘customer’ in a brothel be proceeded against criminally under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956<\/a> (‘the Act’), Bechu Kurian Thomas, J. held that a ‘customer’ in a brothel can be proceeded against criminally under the provisions of section 7 of the Act, if the other conditions of the section are satisfied.<\/p>\n

In the case at hand, the petitioner alleged that he had approached the ayurvedic hospital for treatment of his back pain and the doctor on duty prescribed an oil massage. While he was undergoing treatment, the police officers came to the hospital and arrested him as the petitioner was found in the company of two women, without any dress and engaged in a sexual act.<\/p>\n

The petitioner submitted that even if the allegations are assumed to be true, still, he, being only a ‘customer’, cannot be proceeded against, as the statute does not contemplate prosecuting a ‘customer’.<\/p>\n

The Court referred to the definition of the term ‘prostitution’ as defined in Sections 2(f) and 7 of the Act and various other provisions of the Act and said that section 7(1) penalises two types of persons for indulging in prostitution within the areas specified:<\/p>\n

(i) the person who carries on prostitution<\/p>\n

(ii) the person with whom such prostitution is carried on.<\/p>\n

It also said that, under Sections 3 and 4 of the Act, a ‘customer’ is not included and only a brothel owner and a person who lives on the earnings of prostitution are included. Also, the words ‘the person with whom such prostitution is carried on’ does not appear in any other provision of the Act other than section 7.<\/p>\n

The Court said that till the year 1987, the words used in the first part of section 7(1) were “women or girl who carries on prostitution…”. The words ‘women or girl’ were replaced with the word ‘person’ with effect from 26-01-1987, indicating that even a man can carry on prostitution. Thus, the words ‘person who carries on prostitution’ in section 7(1) of the Act includes the prostitute also.<\/p>\n

The Court while reading the words “person with whom such prostitution is carried on” in conjunction with the definition of the word prostitution, said that the person who exploits or abuses the prostitute is the person with whom the prostitute carries on prostitution. Thus, it was held that the act of immoral traffic cannot be perpetrated or carried on without a ‘customer ‘and the legislature has intended the customer also to be brought within the purview of the penal provisions.<\/p>\n

The Court further said that the Act is intended to be a deterrent against and prevent immoral traffic and in the absence of the customer falling within the penal umbrella of the statute, the objects of the enactment can never be achieved. Thus, it held that the words ‘person with whom such prostitution is carried on’ as appearing in section 7(1) of the Act will include a ‘customer’.<\/p>\n

[Mathew v. State of Kerala, 2022 SCC OnLine Ker 6263<\/a>, decided on 07-12-2022<\/span>]<\/p>\n\n

Advocates who appeared in this case :<\/p>\n

For Petitioner: Advocate R. Santhosh Babu;<\/p>\n

For Respondent: Public Prosecutor Noushad K.A.<\/p>\n\n

*Apoorva Goel, Editorial Assistant has reported this brief.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kerala High Court held that the words ‘person with whom such prostitution is carried on’ as appearing in section 7(1)<\/a> of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956<\/a> will include a ‘customer’. Thus, a customer in a brothel can be proceeded against criminally.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67011,"featured_media":278757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[2557,45260,53239,35165,44724,2523,41712],"class_list":["post-279678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-casebriefs","category-highcourts","tag-Criminal_Trial","tag-customer","tag-immoral-traffic-prevention-act-1956","tag-immoral-trafficking","tag-interpretation-of-statutes","tag-Kerala_High_Court","tag-prostitution"],"yoast_head":"\nCan a \u2018customer\u2019 in a brothel be proceeded against criminally under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956; Kerala High Court answers | SCC Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In a petition questioning that can a \u2018customer\u2019 in a brothel be proceeded against criminally under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"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\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can a \u2018customer\u2019 in a brothel be proceeded against criminally under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956; 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Phaneendra, J. held that the offences under ITP Act or under Section 370\u00a0 IPC\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":[]},{"id":265419,"url":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2022\/04\/15\/customers-caught-in-brothel-cannot-be-prosecuted-for-immoral-trafficking\/","url_meta":{"origin":279678,"position":2},"title":"Kar 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, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/New_Karnataka.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/New_Karnataka.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/New_Karnataka.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":359591,"url":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2025\/09\/10\/kerala-hc-inducing-prostitution-brothel-customer-liability\/","url_meta":{"origin":279678,"position":3},"title":"Individuals availing services of sex workers in brothels can be prosecuted for inducing prostitution under Immoral Traffic Act: Kerala HC","author":"Apoorva","date":"September 10, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cA person utilising the service of a sex worker at a brothel cannot be termed a customer. To be a customer, a person should buy some goods or services. 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":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":279678,"position":4},"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":[]},{"id":207715,"url":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2019\/01\/07\/madras-hc-grants-relief-to-indonesian-spa-therapist-booked-under-immoral-traffic-prevention-act-rebukes-police-for-colourable-exercise-of-power\/","url_meta":{"origin":279678,"position":5},"title":"Madras HC | Relief to Indonesian spa therapist booked under Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act; Police rebuked for colourable exercise of power","author":"Bhumika Indulia","date":"January 7, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cUrgent need to get out of the preconditioned mind of the majority who unfortunately see Spas and Massage Centres as brothel houses.\u201d Madras High Court: The Bench of N. Anand Venkatesh, J. allowed a petition filed by a spa therapist against her illegal confinement and quashed cases filed against owners\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\/279678","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\/67011"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}