The Supreme Court on Friday issued a slew of directions to strengthen mechanisms for tracing missing children and tackling child trafficking across the country [G Ganesh v. State of Tamil Nadu].

A bench of Justices Ahsanuddin Amanullah and R Mahadevan ordered that if police receive any information with regard to a missing person, they should immediately register first information reports (FIRs) without waiting for a preliminary inquiry or requiring guardians to initiate the process.

The FIRs must mandatorily invoke relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita relating to kidnapping and abduction of children, the Bench added.

Further, the police should transfer such case to the Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTU) without waiting for conclusion of 4-month period under the existing guidelines, the Court underscored. As per the existing guidelines, a missing child case need to be transferred to the AHTU only if the child remains untraced for four months.

"Immediately upon the investigating agency/police having sufficient reason belief that the case relates to trafficking, and without waiting for 4 month period, the matter shall be transferred to the specialised unit dealing with offences of human trafficking, kidnapping, abduction etc," the Court said.

Pertinently, the Court directed the Ministry of Home Affairs to create an all-India police grid with a dedicated portal for cases involving human trafficking, missing children and missing women.

The Bench passed the directions after expressing serious concern over the widening gap between the number of children reported missing and those eventually traced.

“The more I read about it, the more I feel I am so unaware of the ground reality. This is a massive issue. The issue is so wide. Nobody is realising the seriousness of the issue,” the Court said.

The case arose from a plea filed by one G Ganesh after his minor daughter went missing from Chennai in 2011. Although a first information report (FIR) was registered and the matter was investigated by multiple agencies, the child remained untraced and the police eventually closed the case as undetectable.

After the Madras High Court declined to interfere with the closure report, the matter eventually reached the Supreme Court.

Troubled by the systemic issues emerging from the case, the Court expanded the proceedings suo motu to examine the larger issue of missing children and child trafficking across the country.

On Friday, the Court issued a slew of directions to combat the issue:

AHTUs must be functional: Taking note of submissions that Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTUs) in several States exist only on paper, the Court directed the Union and State governments to immediately ensure that such units are fully functional and effective on the ground.

“At this juncture, Dr. Nair informs that Anti-Human Trafficking Units have been constituted on paper across the country, but they are either non-functional or lack sufficient powers to take effective steps in law enforcement,” the order noted.

Immediate restoration of children: The Court also expressed concern over delays in restoring recovered children to their families.

“The moment the child is recovered, it shall, without any loss of time, be ensured that the person recovered is restored to the family,” the Court directed.

However, the bench clarified that children should not be restored to families where the guardians themselves are found to have played a role in trafficking.

Aadhaar verification after rescue: To aid identification and restoration, the Court directed that every rescued or recovered person be taken for Aadhaar verification or enrolment immediately after recovery.

The Court observed that biometric verification through Aadhaar would help authorities identify repeated attempts to create duplicate identities and facilitate restoration processes.

The bench directed District Child Protection Units (DCPUs) to discharge their statutory duties with due diligence and utmost priority. It further added that Juvenile Justice Committees of High Courts would monitor compliance.

Portal linkage with CCTNS: The Court also noted a suggestion that the proposed trafficking portal should be integrated with Mission Vatsalya and the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) platform to improve coordination and data sharing.

States told to appoint nodal officers: The Court expressed dissatisfaction with the functioning of nodal officers appointed by States. It observed that such appointments were often made casually and officers frequently failed to respond or delegated responsibilities to others.

The bench directed all Home Secretaries and Directors General of Police to appoint nodal officers with integrity, competence and experience in handling such cases.

“It is further directed that the State nodal officers shall be duty-bound to respond to any assistance that may be requested from them with regard to the functioning of the committee, and in no circumstances shall they pass on the responsibility to any other person,” the Court ordered.

The Court also clarified that all agencies, including District Legal Services Authorities and similar institutions, must extend full cooperation in matters concerning missing children and trafficking investigations.

The matter has been listed for further hearing in August.

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