Taking a stern view of inter-state child trafficking rackets in the country, the Supreme Court on Monday cancelled the bail granted to 13 accused and said the "cry of the collective for justice, its desire for peace and harmony" couldn't be trivialised.
"We direct the state government to ensure that the trafficked children are admitted in schools in accordance with the provisions of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 and continue to provide support for their education," a bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan said.
The top court noted trafficking in India had taken diverse forms -- each prevailing across states.
"An overall analysis of trafficking patterns across states reiterates the prevalence of trafficking in large numbers with the number of cases sharply rising with time. What is of concern is the rapid spread of the problem with previously unknown factors getting embedded in the web of traffickers," it said.
The bench said the changing trafficking patterns also brought "changes in the traffickers, their modus operandi, their manipulation of the victims and their understanding of the limitations in the criminal justice system".
It found fault with the Allahabad high court orders releasing the accused persons on bail.
Considering the serious nature of the crime, the bench said the high court should not have ruled in favour of the accused persons.
"We are sorry to say but the high court dealt with all the bail applications in a very callous manner. The outcome of this callous approach on the part of the high court has ultimately paved the way for many accused persons to abscond and thereby put the trial in jeopardy," it said.
The "least" the high court could have done was to impose a condition on each of the accused to mark their presence once a week at the police station concerned, the bench added.
The bench said the life of an individual living in a society governed by the rule of the law had to be regulated. Such regulations which were the source in law, subserve the social balance and function as a significant instrument to protect human rights and security of the collective, it added.
Laws, the top court said, were enacted for the collective's obedience so that the society's members lived peacefully.
The accused were stated to be a "big threat to the society" for exhibiting a tendency of committing child trafficking wherever they went in the country.
The top court was critical of the Uttar Pradesh government conduct saying, it was "thoroughly disappointed" with the manner in which the situation was handled.
"Why did the state not do anything for all this period of time? Why did the State not deem it fit to challenge the orders of bail passed by the high court? The state unfortunately has exhibited no seriousness worth the name."
The top court directed the accused persons to surrender and expedited the trial against them in three FIRs registered against them in Varanasi.
"We direct the chief judicial magistrate district Varanasi and the additional chief judicial magistrate court number 5, district Varanasi to commit all the three criminal cases of this judgment to the sessions court, within a period of two weeks from today without fail," it said.
The bench said that as all the criminal cases were being committed to the sessions court, the trial court concerned should proceed to frame charges within a week from then on.
The trial court was ordered to take immediate steps to secure the presence of the accused in case it found that the accused persons had absconded or there whereabouts were not known.
The 95-page verdict was authored by Justice Pardiwala, who said once charges were framed by the trial court in individual cases, the trial court should proceed with the recording of the evidence, preferably on a day-to-day basis and complete the trial within six months.
The bench directed the state to appoint three special public prosecutors for conducting trials and said police protection should provided to the victims and their families.
The police were granted two months to trace the absconding accused persons and produce them before the court concerned at the earliest.
The bench said at trial's end, the trial court concerned should pass appropriate orders on compensation to the victims under the provisions of the BNSS 2023 including under the Uttar Pradesh Rani Laxmi Bai Mahila Evam Bal Samman Kosh managed by the Land Welfare Committee.
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