Supreme Court asks govt to come with SOP on missing children

The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Centre to come out with Standard Operating Procedures to trace missing children across the country after taking note of suggestions of NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan. A social justice bench of justices Madan B Lokur and UU Lalit also asked the Ministry Of Women & Child Development to integrate the functioning of websites -- khoyapaya.gov.in and www.trackthemissingchild.gov.in, meant for tracing the missing children.

The bench, meanwhile, asked senior advocate H S Phoolka, appearing for the NGO, to give suggestions on the steps to be taken for implementing the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000. The senior advocate will have to give his inputs to the Centre on the standard operating procedures as well.

Earlier, the apex court had slammed the government for its "casual" approach towards missing children and imposed a fine on it for not complying with its directions like providing the status of such children across the country. Imposing a fine of Rs 50,000 on the Ministry, it had also expressed displeasure over non-filling up of vacancies, including for the post of Chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR). The bench had asked the Ministry to inform it about the status of missing children and those recovered in a state-wise tabular chart as on March 31.

The bench was hearing a PIL filed by NGO 'Bachpan Bachao Aandolan (BBA)' on the large number of missing children across the country.