The Delhi High Court has issued a slew of guidelines to reinforce standard operating procedures for police in cases related to missing children, the Bar and Bench reported on Monday.
Justice Swarna Kanta Sharma was hearing a case filed by the father of a 16-year-old girl who had gone missing in July but was found the same month. The court was told that the girl had left her home of her own free will after she had developed some misunderstandings with her parents.
The petitioner, however, said that she was found after a delay of 17 days due to the alleged negligence of the police. He urged the court to direct the authorities to follow the standard operating procedure for cases of missing children issued by the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development in 2016.
The court said that the guidelines were needed for the benefit of investigating officers who face challenges in missing children cases. It remarked that “children, being the most valuable treasures of an ‘emergent dynamic Bharat’, deserve the best and safest environment”.
Justice Sharma said that the standard protocols and the standing orders should be translated into languages widely spoken in Delhi, including Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu, so that the police can clearly understand them.
He also directed the Delhi Police Academy to create learning modules to train newly recruited police personnel and ordered the development of a user-friendly, ready-to-use handbook with condensed key procedures for quick reference and making it available in all police stations.
A standardised checklist should be formulated to guide officers investigating missing children cases, he said.
The court stressed the importance of equipping police officers with modern techniques, including cyber-enabled investigation techniques and learning from global expertise to deal with cases of missing children.
For complaints, the court said that upon the recovery of the missing child, the parents should mandatorily inform the police within 48 hours.
The court remarked that law enforcement and investigative agencies must work collectively to ensure that missing children are not only recovered but also restored to their guardians.
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