January 03, 2019:

On Thursday, Delhi HC has directed the police to apprise it of the steps taken to trace missing children.

HC wants to know if the police follow any standard operating process (SOPs) to locate these children and to reunite them with families.

SOPs are steps to be taken by the police after the recovery of missing children, including their identification & rehabilitation.

Bench comprising of Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri recently asked the Delhi Police to file an affidavit indicating the manner and the number of cases in which the ‘face recognition software’ — used to track the children — has been used since 2016.

It had earlier asked the police to give district-wise details indicating the number of missing children in Delhi.

The court made it clear that it expected a DCP-rank officer familiar with the functioning of Cyber Cell to remain present on the next date to help it plug the gaps in tracing these children from the point of lodging a missing report.

The bench allowed the plea of child rights NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) that sought to be impleaded as a party in the case.

It also roped in the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights and Delhi Legal Service Authority to render necessary assistance to the court for streamlining the entire process of monitoring and recovery of these children in Delhi.

Seeking to be heard as a party in the matter, the NGO had submitted that its primary focus has been on issues pertaining to

child rights and it has been taking steps to retrieve missing children, those in servitude, child and bonded labour. The NGO said it had also filed a petition in the Supreme Court, which had directed the Centre to lay down SOPs for dealing with tracing missing/ found children.

In its plea, the NGO claimed there was a lot of laxity in implementing the SOPs due to which these children were still not tracked quickly enough.

Initially, a petition was filed in the HC by a man regarding his 13-year-old daughter, who went missing in July 2014. The petition was filed in 2017, and she is yet to be recovered.

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