COURT ON ITS OWN MOTION Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS Court on 19th January, 2011 had taken note of the report submitted by Ms. Asha Menon, learned Member Secretary, Delhi Legal Service Authority wherefrom it was evincible that 573 children had remained untraced. The said figure was disputed by Mr. H.S. Phoolka, learned amicus curiae. Today Mr. Phoolka has produced a chart about the missing children in various age groups. The said chart reads as follows:

(2.) AS directed on the earlier occasion, the Member Secretary and the Officer on Special Duty or any other officer/lawyer nominated by the Member Secretary were required to examine the children who have been traced. Today a status report has been filed by the Member Secretary. On a perusal of the report, it is evident that the officers of Delhi Legal Service Authority have examined 19 children who were produced by their relatives. The report states that the children who were produced were those who had run away from home on account of scolding by parents or fear on account of taking money or missing school or had left home for a party or to view a movie with friends without informing the parents. Two of them had eloped. A couple of children were immature and had followed a group of people for mela or wedding procession. One of the children disclosed that he had been accosted by the Chowkidar of a local school in the area of Gurudwara Bangal Sahib, under suspicious circumstances but no action was taken by the local school against the Chowkidar.

(3.) ON a perusal of the report, it is further evident that the police is ill equipped to handle such post recovery counseling and, therefore, services of the special wing namely "Special Unit for Women and Children" should be availed. It is relevant to state here and as is demonstrable from the report that Bachpan Bachaoo Andolan, a non -governmental organization had brought parents of few missing children to the office of the Delhi Legal Service Authority and during interaction with the parents, all of them complained that the police was not treating them with courtesy and sensitivity and children of the said parents were missing for more than six months and in some cases it was found that the children were missing for more than two years. Though FI Rs have been lodged yet the same are not pursued with adequate sensitivity and information was only sought from parents who could not have really assist the investigation because of their poverty. The number of missing children as per report is as follows: