Supreme Court on Thursday called for prompt action in the cases of missing child. It directed chief secretaries of all the states to ask police stations to immediately start registering cases and start probing every complaints of missing children. The court has also directed for a special juvenile police officer in every police station.
Hearing a petition by the NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan, a bench comprising chief justice Altamas Kabir, justice J Chelameswar and justice Vikramajit Sen said the states and UTs will ensure that every police station has a special juvenile police officer to deal with cases of missing children.’
Seeking a direction to the government to make laws dealing with kidnapping or trafficking of children more stringent, the NGO said in 2008-10, 117,480 children were reported missing out of which 74,209 were traced.
Appearing for the NGO, which has sought a national action plan for rescuing missing children, senior counsel HS Phoolka said that every day, hundreds of children go missing without any trace and the law enforcement agencies are not serious in their efforts to stop this crime. ‘Immediate steps must be taken for the recovery of these children,’ he added.
The court also expressed dissatisfaction over the following states - Gujarat, TN, Odisha, HP, Goa and AP – for not issuing instructions to their advocates in the case and summoned cheif secretaries of these states to the court on February 5, the next date of hearing in the case.
Hearing a petition by the NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan, a bench comprising chief justice Altamas Kabir, justice J Chelameswar and justice Vikramajit Sen said the states and UTs will ensure that every police station has a special juvenile police officer to deal with cases of missing children.’
Seeking a direction to the government to make laws dealing with kidnapping or trafficking of children more stringent, the NGO said in 2008-10, 117,480 children were reported missing out of which 74,209 were traced.
Appearing for the NGO, which has sought a national action plan for rescuing missing children, senior counsel HS Phoolka said that every day, hundreds of children go missing without any trace and the law enforcement agencies are not serious in their efforts to stop this crime. ‘Immediate steps must be taken for the recovery of these children,’ he added.
The court also expressed dissatisfaction over the following states - Gujarat, TN, Odisha, HP, Goa and AP – for not issuing instructions to their advocates in the case and summoned cheif secretaries of these states to the court on February 5, the next date of hearing in the case.