Court On Its Own Motion vs State
2011 Latest Caselaw 1524 Del

*      IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI

+      W.P.(CRL) 249/2009

       COURT ON ITS OWN MOTION                 ..... Petitioner
                      Through Mr. H. S. Phoolka, Sr. Advocate as
                              Amicus Curiae with Mr. Kanwar
                              Faisal and Mr. Anand, Kumar,
                              Advocate.
               versus

       STATE                                          ..... Respondent
                         Through      Mr. Pawan Sharma, Standing
                                      Counsel with Ms. Laxmi Chauhan
                                      and Mr. Pashupati Sharma,
                                      Advocates.
                                      Mr. Rajan Bhagat, DCP.
                                      Ms. Meera Bhatia, Advocate for
                                      GNCTD.
                                      Ms. Asha Menon, Member
                                      Secretary, DLSA.
        CORAM:
        HON'BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE
        HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SANJIV KHANNA

                           ORDER

% 16.03.2011

This Court on 19th January, 2011 had taken note of the report

submitted by Ms. Asha Menon, learned Member Secretary, Delhi Legal

Service Authority wherefrom it was evincible that 573 children had

remained untraced. The said figure was disputed by Mr. H.S. Phoolka,

learned amicus curiae. Today Mr. Phoolka has produced a chart about the

missing children in various age groups. The said chart reads as follows:-

"The update of statistics of children reported missing in the years 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010, the progress made in the tracing of children during this period as on 1st March 2011 is as under:-

 Years                            0 to 8 Years
               Missing          Traced              Yet to be traced
              M       F        M         F        M        F      % age
 2006        668     473      651       463       17       10      2%
 2007        855     580      833       563       22       17      3%
 2008        670     473      635       452       35       21      5%
 2009        705     494      640       473       65       21      7%
 2010        588     373      511       326       77       47      13%
                                  8 to 12 Years
 Years          Missing         Traced              Yet to be traced
              M        F       M         F        M        F      % age
 2006        827      292     805       282       22       10      3%
 2007        1016     370     986       350       30       20      4%
 2008        774      286     735       266       39       20      6%
 2009        693      196     622       177       71       19      10%
 2010        620        183   446      151     174       32      26%
                                 12 To 18 Years
 Year           Missing          Traced           Yet to be traced
              M        F       M        F       M        F      % age
 2006        1896     1667    1800    1589      96       78      5%
 2007        2085     1964    1995    1844      90      120      5%
 2008        1926     2139    1801    1943     125      196      8%
 2009        1875     1983    1705    1742     170      241      11%
 2010        1426     1901    1074    1383     352      518      26%

2. As directed on the earlier occasion, the Member Secretary and the

Officer on Special Duty or any other officer/lawyer nominated by the

Member Secretary were required to examine the children who have been

traced. Today a status report has been filed by the Member Secretary. On

a perusal of the report, it is evident that the officers of Delhi Legal Service

Authority have examined 19 children who were produced by their

relatives. The report states that the children who were produced were

those who had run away from home on account of scolding by parents or

fear on account of taking money or missing school or had left home for a

party or to view a movie with friends without informing the parents. Two

of them had eloped. A couple of children were immature and had

followed a group of people for mela or wedding procession. One of the

children disclosed that he had been accosted by the Chowkidar of a local

school in the area of Gurudwara Bangal Sahib, under suspicious

circumstances but no action was taken by the local school against the

Chowkidar.

3. It is revealed from the report that though cases of running away or

missing from home apparently seem innocuous, yet on interaction with

the children it became vivid that the children and the parents require

serious counseling post recovery. There were two cases in which the girls

were withdrawn from schools which has been a traumatic experience for

the young girls. In another case, the boy who had ran away, was sent to

work as a sales boy at a saree store by his father after his name was struck

off from the school records. The trauma experience by the mothers has

been put forth in the report and the suggestion given is that serious

professional counseling is needed. It is also stated that the children who

had ran away from the homes after quarrelling with their parents or

siblings required to be handled with care.

4. On a perusal of the report, it is further evident that the police is ill

equipped to handle such post recovery counseling and, therefore, services

of the special wing namely "Special Unit for Women and Children"

should be availed. It is relevant to state here and as is demonstrable from

the report that Bachpan Bachaoo Andolan, a non-governmental

organization had brought parents of few missing children to the office of

the Delhi Legal Service Authority and during interaction with the parents,

all of them complained that the police was not treating them with courtesy

and sensitivity and children of the said parents were missing for more than

six months and in some cases it was found that the children were missing

for more than two years. Though FIRs have been lodged yet the same are

not pursued with adequate sensitivity and information was only sought

from parents who could not have really assist the investigation because of

their poverty. The number of missing children as per report is as follows:-

Total FIRs received from 10.01.11 to 14.03.11 178

Total reports received (from Sep.09 to 14.03.2011) 2081

Total traced till date (from Sep. 09 to 14.03.2011) 1601

5. As advised at present and keeping in view the tabular chart filed by

Mr. Phoolka, learned amicus curiae and the chart which has been brought

on record by the Member Secretary, we proceed to issue following

directions:-

(a) The children as directed on earlier occasion shall be produced on

regular basis before the Member Secretary or the Officer on Special Duty

or any other officer nominated by the Member Secretary including the

impaneled lawyer.

(b) The Member Secretary or the Officer on Special Duty or the

nominated officer shall over-see the examination of young children and

try to find out the cause for missing.

(c) The Secretary, Social Welfare Department in consultation with the

Member Secretary DLSA and the Joint Commissioner of Police, the

Nodal Officer for this purpose, shall constitute a Committee of counselors

who shall counsel the parents so that they shall not aggravate the trauma

suffered by the children after their recovery.

(d) The Commissioner of Police shall issue instructions forthwith to the

Investigating Officers, who shall keep the track of the parents so that at

the relevant time they can be produced before the NALSA or any other

authority, which shall be giving the direction on future occasion so that

the real reason for „missing‟ children can be known and the problem can

be adequately addressed.

(e) The Commissioner of Police shall select a team of the officers who

can sensitize the ground level police officers to deal with this kind of

cases so that they would show their requisite sensitivity to the problem in

issue and not show any indifferent or unconcerned attitude either to the

parents or to the children.

(f) The Secretary Education, GNCTD shall issue a circular to all the

schools situated within the territory of Delhi that children facing this kind

of problem, as it is not in their hands, are treated with utmost sensibility

so that they do not abandon education. The circular must clearly stipulate

that striking of names from the school is not a solution and efforts are to

be made by the school authorities to call the parents to apprise the need

for education in the 21st century and the parental duty and the facilities

provided by the government for such imparting of education.

(g) No school without appropriate, adequate and substantial reason

would strike the name of a student knowing fully well that the student is

missing without prior approval of the Secretary, Department of Education,

GNCTD because we have directed that a circular has to be issued

protecting the interest of the children and also for parental guidance.

(h) The Nodal Officer shall see to it that the children belonging to

various age groups and with different backgrounds shall be produced

before the authorities of DLSA so that a comprehensive view can be

projected before this Court. We are disposed to issue this direction as Mr.

Phoolka, learned amicus curiae has submitted that there are gangs

operating not only involved in trafficking of children but also in engaging

the children as labourers without any payment and not allowing them any

kind of freedom and the police is not carrying out proper investigation.

The Commissioner of Police shall constitute a task force for proper

investigation whether the gangs, as alleged by Mr. Phoolka, are operating

in the field. In the said task force, certain responsible officers shall be

included as some kind of skepticism is expressed by Mr. Phoolka with

regard to the indifference shown at the police station level.

(i) The Deputy Commissioner of Police shall over-see all

investigations relating to missing children as it is stated before us that the

children between the age of 3 to 8 are abducted and the sole purpose is

trafficking.

(j) As far as the tabular chart given by Mr. Phoolka is concerned, the

Commissioner of Police shall scrutinize the same and make an endavour

to engage more officers/officials so that the children are rescued. If a

child, who is missing, is not rescued or found for a period of six months

case should be handed over to the Anti Kidnapping Cell for effective

investigation.

(k) The Commissioner of Police shall evolve a standard operating

procedure especially meant for missing children when a report is received

in the police station or in the Police Control Room about the missing

children. The said policy shall be produced before this Court on the next

date of hearing.

6. We have issued the aforesaid directions regard being had to the

issue which really touches the basic fulcrum of a civilized society. It

should be borne in mind that child is the internal hope for future. It does

not matter from which background the child comes. A child is a child

despite the background for all purposes and no apathy by anyone can even

remotely be shown for such an attitude is not countenanced in a society

where the rule of law prevails. That apart, it becomes the duty of the

member of a civilized society to see that the children are treated with care

and nurtured with real concern. The authorities, who are in the realm of

aforesaid, should apprise themselves that the slightest neglect of a child

today will cause immensurable catastrophe to the posterity in future and

in the ultimate eventuality, there may be a national disaster.

Let the matter be listed on 25th May, 2011.

Dasti under signature of the Court Master.

CHIEF JUSTICE

SANJIV KHANNA, J.

MARCH 16, 2011 NA