The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Centre to
create a dedicated online portal under the aegis of the home ministry to trace
missing children and investigate such cases.
A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and R Mahadevan
underlined the lack of coordination among police authorities entrusted with the
job of tracing missing children in states and union territories in the country.
The court said the portal could have a dedicated
officer from each state who could be the in charge of missing complaints besides
disseminate information.
The top court outlined the need for a
"coordinated effort" to trace missing children and creation of a
dedicated online portal to deal with the issue.
The bench consequently
asked additional solicitor general Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Centre,
to seek instructions in the matter.
The top court previously directed the Centre to
issue reminders to several states and union territories to furnish data on
missing children cases.
NGO Guria Swayam Sevi Sansthan had moved the top
court and highlighted unresolved cases of kidnapping or missing children
besides the actions required to be taken on the basis of information available
with the Khoya/Paya portal monitored by the government of India.
The petition illustrated its argument with five
cases registered in Uttar Pradesh last year in which minor boys and girls were
kidnapped and trafficked through a network of middlemen to states like
Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.