PREM Vs. DISTRICT MAGISTRATE MEERUT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a petition by Srimati Prem under Article 226 of the Constitution praying for the issue of a writ in the nature of habeas corpus.

(2.) According to the averments of the petitioner, she is a young woman of 24 years carrying on the profession of dancing and singing and that she carried on this profession in her house situate in Kabari Bazar in the city of Meerut. On 20-7-1958, the petitioner states, she was taken into custody by the police of Meerut and thereafter sent to a women's protective home at Rajpur in the town of Dehra Dun. The petitioner further alleges that the police purported to act under Sections 16 and 17 of the Suppression of Immoral Traffic in Women and Girls Act, 1956 (Act No. 104 of 1956) which was passed by the Central Government and which came into force on 1-5-1958. The petitioner has challenged that she is amenable to be dealt with under the aforementioned Act because, according to her, she is aged 24 years and as such she could not be dealt with under the provisions of the Act as the Act, according to the petitioner, could only deal with women or girls who were under the age of 21 years.

(3.) The main contention, however, of the petitioner was that her arrest was illegal inasmuch as, she had not been arrested by a special police officer appointed as such under the provisions of the Act. On the averments made on behalf of the petitioner it appears that she had been arrested by the ordinary police and not by a special police officer as provided for under the Act.