New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked all states and Union Territories (UTs) to furnish details to the Centre of cases registered by them for the offence of trafficking of girls for sexual exploitation during 2014 to September 30, 2015.
Expressing concern over trafficking of girls, a three-judge bench headed by Justice A R Dave asked the Union Cabinet Secretary to set up a high-powered inter-ministerial committee to deal with the issue.
The bench, also comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph, sought a report by November 15 on the progress made in setting up of the Organised Crimes Investigating Agency (OCIA) for investigating the cases of human trafficking as such offences involve many states.
It asked all states and UTs to provide the data of FIRs, registered between 2014 to September 30, 2015 with regard to girl child trafficking under certain provisions of the IPC and the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) within a fortnight.
The MHA will collate the data and will file an affidavit before November 18, the next date of hearing, the court said.
During the hearing, the court hailed the steps taken by the Centre and National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) on issues like prevention, rescue and rehabilitation of the victims of trafficking for commercial and sexual exploitation.
The counsel for the Centre today referred to the recent Central Advisory Committee meeting in which states and UTs were invited and they discussed the report of NALSA.
NALSA had suggested roles of various stakeholders in the prevention, rescue and rehabilitation of victims of trafficking for commercial and sexual exploitation and had sought a direction to the Centre that the OCIA be set up to investigate the cases of human trafficking and organised crime.
Earlier, the court had asked the Centre to come out with an action plan to prevent trafficking of girls for sexual exploitation, their rescue and rehabilitation after holding discussions with all states.
