VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Wednesday appointed an amicus curiae to suggest measures that can be taken to curb human trafficking. Terming human trafficking, particularly child trafficking, a matter of serious concern, the court said all possible measures should be taken to stop it.
Earlier, the high court had taken suo motu cognisance of media reports on two separate child trafficking incidents reported in the recent past and converted them to PILs. A bench of Chief Justice Prasanth Kumar Mishra and Justice M Satyanarayana Murthy heard the PIL and sought to know the action taken against the accused in the two cases.
Special Government Pleader (SGP) Chintla Suman informed the court that FIRs had been registered and 11 persons were named accused in the cases. Further, the bench asked senior counsel P Sri Raghuram to act as an amicus curiae and directed the court registry to submit all documents related to the two cases to him.
SGP Suman brought to the court’s notice that two more petitions related to human trafficking cases from 2021 were pending. He urged the bench to club the said petitions with the current two for hearing. Responding positively to the special government pleader, the high court posted the matter for further hearing to July 18.
An amicus curiae, which means ‘the friend of the court,’ is an individual or organisation who is not a party to a legal case, but is permitted to assist a court of law by offering information, expertise or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case.