The Supreme Court on Monday made it mandatory for all police stations across the country to register a case of kidnapping for every missing person or child as part of a series of directions aimed at activating police agencies in every state to tackle the serious issue of child trafficking and untraced children.
Expressing concern over the staggering 47,000 children who have remained untraced for years across the country, the Supreme Court said: “The concerned police station is directed to register a First Information Report (FIR) immediately in respect of any missing person or child without waiting for a preliminary investigation or leaving it to the guardian of the missing person to look for him.”
Further, the court held that “the said FIR must mandatorily incorporate the relevant section under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Act relating to abduction of person or child.”
“It is a huge issue and no one realizes the seriousness of this issue. People must be shocked under their thick skin. How can we close our eyes to this reality,” a bench of Justices Ehsanuddin Amanullah and R. Mahadevan while dealing with a case from Tamil Nadu where a child has been missing since 2011.
A large number of directives also require police to refer a missing person case to the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit if there is sufficient reason to believe the case is related to trafficking.
The directions came in the wake of suggestions received from a committee constituted by the court to frame an all-India Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for handling cases of missing children. This committee, headed by former Delhi High Court judge Justice (retd) Mukta Gupta along with former IPS officer P M Nair and Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) Director Virendra Kumar Mishra, has submitted a status report including their suggestions based on ground realities.
Nair shared instances where he intervened in the case of a child who was cured and detained in a child welfare institution in Kerala and who was found missing from Bihar three years ago. The former judge heading the panel suggested that if Aadhaar verification of rescued or recovered children becomes mandatory, it will reveal their identity if Aadhaar has already been created. Since Aadhaar verification requires submission of biometrics, these details can be matched to speed up the process of reuniting these children with their families.
The court ordered the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs to create a national data network linking all police departments to a specific portal to deal with human trafficking and missing children and women. Further, it directed all Directors General of Police (DGPs) of states and Chiefs of Police of Union Territories to ensure functioning of all Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTUs) and give them powers to take effective action in such cases.
The court upheld Justice Gupta’s suggestion and held that “the moment any person or child is recovered or rescued, he or she will be taken for Aadhaar verification or Aadhaar card work.” The court directed the relevant authorities in the state or district to ensure that immediate steps are taken to return the child or person to his or her family without delay and after due verification.
Nair told the court that the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) keeps statistics of missing children and as of now, the number of untraceable children stands at 47,000. He pointed out that such “missing cases” do not receive the seriousness they deserve, and the police are not considering the possibility of investigating the human trafficking angle. He pointed to a previous Supreme Court decision that allowed police to convert a missing person case into human trafficking if the person remained untraceable for four months.
“We are not only focusing on recovery, but also recovery. The police cannot say I did my job and leave it to the child care centers to do their job. Such complacency on the part of the authorities cannot be tolerated,” the court said.
The committee requested more time to submit further suggestions, and the court referred the matter for further hearing in August.
Meanwhile, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) S D Sanjay, who is the convener of the panel and represents the Union government, informed the bench that two other benches of the Supreme Court are also handling similar public interest litigations aimed at coordinating efforts to address child trafficking cases.
One such case filed by the NGO Guriya Swayam Sevi Sansthan is still pending before a bench headed by Justice P V Nagarathna, while the other case involving a child trafficked in Uttar Pradesh is being dealt with by a bench headed by Justice J P Pardiwala, where detailed orders were issued last year to all states and union territories.
Senior advocate Aparna Bhatt, who is assisting in the Guriya case, told the bench that the child trafficking case has multiple dimensions and that in the case she argued, inter-state organized gangs are involved in such crimes. The court included it in the commission and directed the principal officers of the states and union territories, along with all state agencies and district legal services authorities, to cooperate in complying with the court’s directions.
