States which fail to act on repeated complaints of missing children should be prepared to face contempt action, said the Supreme Court on Thursday. The apex court was peeved by thousands of missing children cases gathering dust across all police stations.
In a first step towards instilling fear in the state machinery and police for showing disregard to consistent orders passed by the Court last year in a PIl filed by NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), the bench headed by Chief Justice Hl Dattu directed the Chief Secretaries and Directors General of Police of Bihar and Chhattisgarh to remain present in Court on October 30.
Chhattisgarh reported 9428 missing children complaints although FIRs registered were only 1977. The state counsel told the Court that 8224 children had been traced. But senior advocate HS Phoolka who appeared for BBA objected to the figure. He referred to a reply given in Rajya Sabha which pegged the total cases of missing children in the state at 10664, higher than the figure submitted by the state. In the case of Bihar, the affidavit of the state did not provide details of missing complaints received, FIRs lodged and action taken. However, the Rajya Sabha report indicated that Bihar lodged 2036 complaints of missing children of which 1180 FIRs were registered.
The bench, also comprising Justices Madan B lokur and AK Sikri said, "We will call up the Chief Secretary and DGP of the two states. We will start calling Chief Secretary and Police Commissioners state by state as to why our orders are not being complied in toto."
CJI said that day in and day out the Court receives several complaints of children gone missing and no steps taken to trace them. "When we see the news of missing children in newspapers it hurts us…In spite of our orders passed and this matter pending in Court since 2012, we still see such incidents happening again and again," the bench said.
The BBA alleged that the case of missing children had huge ramifications as it suspected illegal trafficking of children across states. Phoolka informed Court that on receiving complaints of missing children, states must have a standard operating procedure (SOP) to ensure prompt and efficient response.
The bench said, "Why should we not initiate contempt proceedings against the state officials. Next time if we come across any particular state where there are repeated incidents of missing children we will not hesitate to call the Chief Secretary and DGP. After all how would they feel if their children go missing," the bench observed.
National legal Services Authority informed the Court that a tentative SOP for police to handle missing children complaints has been prepared. The Court said it will take aid from this document to lay down a uniform procedure for all States.