Spa owners move HC against unlawful raids and moral policing

Seek guidelines to enfetter raiding powers of the police

Association of Spa Owners moved the Bombay High Court on Saturday, challenging unlawful raids, targeting and moral policing of spa centres and massage parlours by police authorities without cause, jurisdiction and sanction of law.

Filing the petition, advocate Shashwat Anand stated that the police were acting based on frivolous complaints by unscrupulous persons who try to extort money from spa owners. The persons making false complaints and involved in the raids were always the ones who demanded exorbitant sums of money as hafta. If the same were not paid, the business owners were threatened of being subjected to bogus raids and maligned as prostitution centres, the petition read.

The plea also challenged frivolous cases slapped upon the women working at these places under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, citing the stigma they face and the exploitation they encounter from the police as well as the hafta-demanding “activists”.

It sought guidelines to enfetter the raiding powers of the police, while also mentioning, “The Spa Association of India estimated the Spa industry was valued at around ₹11,000 crore in 2018 and is expected to grow by compounded annual growth rate of around 18% till 2025.”