RATNA ALIAS RAKHNA Vs. STATE OF DELHI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a habeas corpus petition under Article 226 of the Constitution filed by a man Ratna or Rakhna claiming an order of release of his daughter Putli, who is at present being detained in the so-called Rescue Home under order of a Delhi Magistrate.

(2.) Briefly facts of the case are that on the 20th of July, 1953 several premises in Delhi were raided by the Police under the provisions of the Bengal Suppression of Immoral Traffic Act as extended to Delhi on the allegation that they were brothels, and a large number of girls alleged to be under 18 years of age were removed from these premises. The girls so removed were kept in some interim place of detention under section 17 of the Act. A woman named Gun Devi who is alleged to be the sister of the present petitioner was prosecuted and brought to trial under sections 4 and 8 of the Act in the Court of the Magistrate at Delhi in respect of the premises from which the girl Putli was removed and by his order dated the 30th of April, 1954 this woman was convicted and sentenced to one and a half years' imprisonment. Her appeal, however, decided by an Additional Sessions Judge proved successful and she was acquitted on the 4th of September, 1954 on the finding that it was not proved that the premises in question were being used as brothel or that any one was living on the earnings of prostitution in those premises.

(3.) According to the petitioner, after that case had ended in this way it was incumbent on the authorities to produce the girl who was being held in detention under section 17 of the Act before a Magistrate for an order regarding her to be passed under section 14 of the Act, and it was alleged that no enquiry had been held or order passed under section 14 and that the continued detention of the girl was therefore illegal.