New Delhi: Supreme Court on Tuesday passed a slew of directions to handle the issue of missing children in the country while asking the government to fill up vacant positions in the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights urgently.
A Social Justice Bench comprising Justices M B Lokur and U U Lalit also appointed the Secretary of Women and Child Development Ministry as the Nodal Officer to coordinate with all the concerned departments of the states and look into their affidavits and file a report before the court.
It directed the nodal officer to ensure the formation of Advisory committees in all states after senior advocate H S Phoolka, appearing for NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan, pointed out that even the state commissions and advisory committees formed under the Juvenile Justice Act were non-functional.
The court also roped in the services of Faculty of Management Studies of Delhi University, asking its Director to examine the web portal of ‘track themissingchild’ and recommend improvements in it. Observing that some states like Odisha and Maharashtra have formed Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), the apex court asked Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS) to compile all the SOPs and file a report.
It asked the National Police Academy, situated at Andhra Pradesh, to prepare a module and curriculum for training police officials who were dealing with the issue of missing children.
The matter would now be heard on February 20 when these reports would be considered by the court.
The court’s directions came on the NGO’s PIL alleging that over 1.7 lakh children have gone missing in the country between January 2008-2010, many of whom were kidnapped for trafficking in flesh trade and child labour.
Earlier the court had expressed concern over “dismal” performance of Odisha in tracing out missing children and had asked the state to explain its failure.
It had also pulled up Tripura government on the issue. It had said that the police was not trying to find missing children because they come from poor families and the states were not concerned about the issue.
The bench, which is examining the issue of missing children state-wise, had earlier summoned the Chief Secretary and the DGP of Odisha, Bihar and Chhattisgarh to explain what steps they have been taking after noting that states were not implementing its order for registering FIRs in such cases.
In a stern warning to all states, the apex court had in October asked them not to make a “tamasha” (drama) of the issue and take effective action. It had then also directed that FIRs be registered as soon as information regarding a missing child was received by the police. (PTI)
