A division bench comprising Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal and Justice S Radhakrishnan gave the ruling on a petition filed by a non-governmental organisation, `Prerna', which works with Kamathipura's commercial sex workers.

The city police's drive to rescue minor girls from prostitutes' dens in the city has focussed attention on the need to examine rehabilitation programmes, and Prerana's petition points out that all is not well in at least one of the rescue homes, `Kasturba Sadan' in Mankhurd. The petition, argued by counsel Colin Gonsalves, pointed out that almost all the amenities in the home for the girls, including drinking water, food and sanitation, were below par.

The petition also points to the lack of hygiene in the home that shelters at least 32 minor rescued girls. Thegirls were taken there after a rescue drive on March 11.

While the State's counsels were unable to give a satisfactory response to the petition, the division bench held that it wanted to check out the conditions in the home. The officials are expected to give a report on the matter, and the petition is posted for April 28.

In 1996, the then Chief Justice M B Shah had converted a report on red light areas in The Indian Express into a suo motu writ petition and directed the police to conduct a raid in these areas and rescue minor girls.