Hyderabad: Telangana high court on Tuesday directed the state govt to file an affidavit in a petition seeking the formulation and implementation of standard operating procedures (SOPs) for effective enforcement of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act.A division bench of Justices P Sam Koshy and Narsing Rao Nandikonda asked the competent govt authority to clarify whether the state would frame its own SOPs or consider adopting the draft SOPs submitted by NGO Prajwala, headed by Sunitha Krishnan. The court issued the directions while hearing a petition filed by Prajwala seeking mandatory SOPs for the Act’s implementation, and adjourned the matter to Feb 24 for further hearing. The petition seeks directions to various govt authorities to issue clear guidelines while dealing with applications for custody of victims in protection homes. It also urges the govt to ensure that persons already identified as organisers or traffickers are not treated as victims in subsequent rescue operations. During an earlier hearing in Dec 2025, Prajwala had submitted a draft set of SOPs to the govt for examination. The court had then asked the state to file an affidavit stating whether it was willing to introduce SOPs to ensure uniform and effective enforcement of the law. Prajwala contended that traffickers and organisers should not be sent to protective homes or admitted to institutions meant for victims. The draft SOPs placed before the court, the NGO said, list specific ‘tell-tale’ indicators to help authorities distinguish between victims and perpetrators during rescue and post-rescue processes.
