Taking cognizance of media reports about a sex racket in the state involving teenaged girls, the Jammu and Kashmir [Images] High Court has decided to initiate proceedings into the matter.

Justice Bashir Ahmad Kirmani noted on Tuesday that the 'painful reports' regarding inducement and blackmail of teenaged girls to lure and coerce them into immoral physical submission had appeared in the press.

The court directed that the matter be listed for hearing during this week. What made the reports alarming were allegations that some persons who were highly placed in different spheres were directly involved in the racket, the judge said.

The occurrences reported were so horrifying that 'even a fraction thereof would be a complete horror in itself', Kirmani observed.

Justice Kirmani further noted that pushing minor girls into the flesh trade was an 'extremely treacherous act', and if constitutionally acknowledged social and moral commitments mean anything, the 'traders of this treachery' had to be brought to account, irrespective of their placement and position.

The state government has already referred the case to CBI for a thorough investigation.