Court suggests legal aid to parents of missing children
August 26th, 2009 - 9:28 pm ICT by IANSNew Delhi, Aug 26 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Wednesday observed that parents of missing children had a traumatic time going to the police station to follow up the case and suggested that they be provided legal assistance.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah and Justice Manmohan said: “It’s a complete traumatic situation for the parents to go to the police station and file the missing complaints and then keep on following (it up) with no legal aid.”
“So there is an urgent need of having a legal assistance system so that cases pertaining to missing children can be dealt with utmost care,” the bench said. It asked the member secretary of the Delhi Legal Services Authority (DLSA) to appear before it Sep 16 and work out a plan for legal assistance.
The court also asked Delhi Police counsel Mukta Gupta to prepare a report on the children who returned to their homes after having gone missing for a few days.
“These statistics will help you (police) out in analysing the data and observe the trend,” the court said.
Meanwhile, the amicus curiae (friend of court) H.S. Phoolka submitted his report to the court and said: “The police have failed to trace the kids who return home after they go missing. Efforts need to be made to find out information that may lead to some organised gangs.”
The court had taken note of the increasing number of missing children and ordered an inquiry by the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR).
The report by DCPCR said: “As soon as the police come to know about missing children, they should inform the Missing (Persons’) Squad, which will then inform the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and within three-four hours they should start the initial investigation. But the police have failed to adopt this procedure.”
The report by the statutory body states that Section 63 of the Juvenile Justice Act makes it mandatory for the police to report the case to the special juvenile police, who in turn have to inform the DCPCR, which also has a missing children cell to look into such cases.
According to the affidavit filed by Delhi Police, 2,210 kids went missing from the capital from June 2008 till January this year and on an average 17 children go missing every day.
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