High Court pulls up rights body for not tracing missing kids

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has taken to task the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) for not taking seriously the issue of children going missing in the national capital.

A bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Manoj Kumar Ohri was informed that in the meetings of all the stakeholders, the DCPCR has stated that in the last three years, it had issued notices to police in 782 cases pertaining to children going missing in Delhi. The court, however, said, “Keeping in mind the fact that on an annual basis, 5,000 children (approximately) have gone missing from Delhi and remain untraced, this is an abysmally low figure.” 

Delhi government standing counsel (criminal) Rahul Mehra submitted that the DCPCR has been found to be most negligent in the discharge of its duties. Senior advocate H S Phoolka and lawyer Prabhsahay Kaur, appearing for NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan, also supported the submission, saying that the DCPCR was not monitoring the standard operating procedure (SOP) required to be followed in cases of missing children. 

They said that the Supreme Court had in 2017 directed the Ministry of Women and Child Development to inform all state commissions to monitor the SOP on missing children and they were expected to take up the task in right earnestness. The court directed the DCPCR to file an affidavit dealing with the issues raised regarding it in the meetings so far.

The bench also impleaded as parties the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, DMRC, news broadcasting agencies and three municipal corporations of Delhi – East, South and North – and directed the ministry officials to be present in the next meeting of the stakeholders on March 8.