Business Standard
The Supreme Court has held that cases involving the trafficking of children for Commercial Sexual Exploitation (CSE) can attract charges under the stringent POCSO Act, alongside the relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act. A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan on Friday issued a slew of directions to mitigate the concerns of sex workers, while clarifying the legal framework for the prosecution of perpetrators and the rehabilitation of victims. It said the consent of an adult victim to the intended exploitation is irrelevant if any of the listed "means," like the use of threat, force, other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power, abuse of a position of vulnerability, or the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person, are used. "The consent of a child victim of trafficking is irrelevant, regardless of whether or not 'means' have been used... Lack of consent is no
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