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.
The court made the observation as it was told that in the last three years, the DCPCR had issued notices to the police in 782 cases pertaining to children going missing in Delhi.
“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,” the Bench said.
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, appearing for NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan, said that DCPCR was not monitoring the SOP required to be followed in cases of missing children.
The court directed DCPCR to file an affidavit dealing with the issues raised regarding it in the meetings so far. The Bench also made the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, DMRC, news broadcasting agencies and the three municipal corporations of Delhi parties in the case.
It directed the Ministry officials to be present in the next meeting of the stakeholders on March 8. The court listed the case for further hearing on April 3.
On the ‘facial recognition software’, the court was told by the DCP of crime records office that the software is working efficiently. The High Court, however, opined that the data analysis quoted before it was “flawed” and said that the aspect needed further examination.