Institute of Legal and Management Studies

The Supreme Court recently recommended that the Union Ministry of Home Affairs set up a common dedicated portal to trace the kidnapped or trafficked children, considering that tracing such children requires coordinated efforts, which can be done through the said portal, with a dedicated officer being in charge. Consequently, the Court allowed the Additional Solicitor General, Aishwarya Bhati, to seek instructions from the Government on the suggestion.

A bench comprising Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice R Mahadevan passed the orders in a public interest litigation highlighting the plight of children who are victims of organised trafficking networks operating across multiple States.

The bench suggested the Home Ministry set up a dedicated portal, acknowledging that one of the difficulties in tracking the kidnapped or trafficked children and tracing and recovering them, and restoring them to their respective parents, is the wide network of the offence. It states that such offences engulf many States and Union territories across the country.

"A child trafficked from one State could be from persons who are residents of another State and the trafficking could occur from a third State in another zone and sometimes to overseas destinations. In order to have a coordinated effort in tracing missing children and to aid and assist the investigation of such offences, we find that it is just and proper to have a common portal, which is under supervision and control of the Home Ministry Union of India," the bench noted.

Noting that a dedicated portal would also help in strategising and facilitating the investigation as presently there is a lack of coordinate amongst the police, the Court said: "We say so for the reason that presently there is a lack of coordination and a coordinated network amongst the police units who are in charge of tracking and recovering missing children in the States and Union Territories across the country. As a result, the recovery of the missing children, who are kidnapped for illegal trafficking and other illegal purposes are not recovered in time and/or not at all recovered and the investigation is tardy."

As per the directions of the Court, a dedicated officer from each State could be put in charge of registering complaints on the common portal and also for the purpose of disseminating information which could be perceived by all nodal officers from each of the States and Union Territories.

It should be noted that last year, on September 24, the Court had directed the Union to coordinate with stakeholders and collect district-wise and year-wise data on missing children since 2020, the year the Crime Multi Agency Centre (Cri-MAC) was launched.

The Court will hear the matter on October 14.

Case Details: GURIA SWAYAM SEVI SANSTHAN v UNION OF INDIA & ORS.|WRIT PETITION(S)(CRIMINAL) NO(S).43/2024

Click Here To Read Order

Appearances: For Petitioner(s) : Ms. Aparna Bhat, Sr. Adv. Ms. Rajkumari Banju, AOR Ms. Karishma Maria, Adv. Ms. Madhulika Mohta, Adv.

For Respondent(s) : Ms. Aishwarya Bhati, A.S.G. Ms. Swati Ghildiyal, Adv. Mr. Vishnu Shankar Jain, Adv. Mr. Saurabh Pandey, Adv. Ms. Mani Munjal, Adv. Ms. Aastha Singh, Adv. Mr. Arvind Kumar Sharma, AOR Ms. Anupriya Srivastava, Adv. Ms. Riddhi Jad, Adv. Ms. Shirka Mehra, Adv. Mr. Ajay Kumar Mishra Sr. Advocate General Up, Adv. Mr. Garvesh Kabra, AOR Mrs. Pooja Kabra, Adv. Mr. Ankur Agnihotri, Adv. Mr. Deepesh Kumar Makker, Adv. Mr. Sarad Kumar Singhania, AOR. Ms. Rashmi Singhania, Adv. Mr. Divynk Panwar, Adv. Ms. Nidhi Jaswal, AOR Mr. Lilin Singh Hijam, AG, SR. Adv. Mr. P.Ramesh Kumar, AOR Mr. Karun Sharma, Adv.