141 Children Missing From Govt Owned Child Care Institutions: Karnataka High Court Directs State To Produce Investigation Report

A division bench of Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justice Suraj Govindaraj while issuing notice to the respondents on a public interest litigation filed by Rajnanna K C said,

"AGA is granted two weeks time to seek instructions in matter and place on record a report of investigation done to trace 141 missing children."

Advocate Umapati S appearing for the petitioner submitted that though crimes have been registered on missing of the children from the institutions, subsequent action to trace the children is not forthcoming.

The plea states missing children from child care institutions is a serious lapse by the government. It is also said the petitioner received the information under the Right to Information Act.

The plea claims that parents of these missing children, most of them are ignorant, poor and illiterate and they don't even know the fact that their children are missing. They have no access to justice and are incapable of accessing the courts.

The plea also states that as per information received under RTI, between October 2015 to October 2021, around 474 children were missing from the government owned institutions and out of them 141 are still to be traced by the police, across the state.

It is claimed that the investigation agencies are not following the mandatory standard operating procedures laid down by the Supreme Court in the case of Bachpan Bachao Andolan vs Union of India. Further, these missing children may be exploited outside and could be involved in several illegal activities.

The plea prays for directions to the respondents to trace the missing children at the earliest; and initiate action against officials responsible for causing missing children. Further, it prays to direct respondents to set up Special Child police units at all police stations.

Case Title: K C Rajanna v. State of Karnataka

Case No: WP 4021/2022