New Delhi:
Allowing the plea of 15 Andhra Pradesh women rescued from a red light area in Delhi who were opposing their transfer to their home state from a reform home in the Capital, the Delhi High Court on Friday directed their immediate release.
Setting aside the trial court's order granting their transit remand to Andhra Pradesh police, a bench of Justice S Ravindra Bhat and Justice SP Garg directed the release of these sex workers.
The bench passed the order after the National and Delhi Commissions for Women, which was asked by the court to assist it in rehabilitation of these women, informed the court that there was no such scheme and it would take some time to formulate the policy.
Disposing of a petition filed by these women, the court said these women could not be kept at the home till the formulation of any scheme for their rehabilitation and ordered their release forthwith.
The women in their plea sought the court's intervention as they were forcibly removed from Delhi despite their unwillingness to go back to their home state.
The bench accepted their plea that they are not minors and they have been settled in the national capital for last more than five years and their children are also studying here.
These women were recently rescued during a joint operation of Andhra Pradesh and Delhi Police on the direction of a court at Hyderabad.
The Hyderabad court had issued a search warrant and directed the police to present these girls on the submission of a minor girl who had escaped from the red light area here.
The minor girl had said that others from Hyderabad were also kept in confinement in the red light area.
About 72 sex workers including some minor girls were rescued and except these 15, others were allowed to go home.