The Bombay High Court (File)Claiming that ‘targeting and moral policing’ of spa centres and massage parlours by the Mumbai police is illegal, an association of spa owners from the city has moved the Bombay High Court seeking guidelines to restrain raiding powers of the law enforcement authorities.
The association claimed that police exercise such a power under the pretext of uncovering some ‘immoral trafficking’ in the nature of a roving and fishing enquiry, mostly acting on the frivolous complaints of some unscrupulous persons, who try to extort money from spa owners.
A plea filed by the Wellness Welfare Association, through advocates Shashwat Anand, Siddharth Naik and Pankaj Kandhari states that spa owners are subject to harassment and extortion by the police and other ‘activists’ in the name of moral policing.
The petition challenged the frivolous cases slapped on the parlours and centres, its owners and the women working there as massage therapists, under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act. It sought directions to the authorities concerned from refraining to interfere in the ‘peaceful functioning’ of the licensed centres and parlours and ‘not to conduct arbitrary raids’ under the excuse of unearthing immoral trafficking without any material. The association said such bogus raids violate the fundamental rights of the personnel working in spas under Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution and are also in violation of the provisions of the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act.
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The plea claimed that the Mumbai Police act against spas on complaints by ‘criminally-minded people’ and inflict damage to the reputation of the owners and employees. “For reasons best known to them, the Mumbai Police proceed with a pre-conceived notion that a spa or a massage centre is a brothel and the girls working there are prostitutes,” the petition claimed.
The members of the association had written to the state home department raising their grievances and availing no response from the government, they approached the high court.
The plea claimed all the registered spas or Ayurvedic massage centres start functioning after securing licences from BMC, under the Bombay Shops and Establishments Act, and they are being “branded as brothels by the Mumbai police”.
The association sought from the court appropriate guidelines and directions to regulate the powers of the law enforcement authorities to prevent them from conducting ‘frivolous’ raids without any sufficient material or receipt of valid information or complaint. The HC has set the next date of hearing on July 26.
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