Karnataka HC seeks report on 141 kids missing from government institutions

February 23, 2022

Acting on public interest litigation filed on the whereabouts of 141 children on 420 crimes registered about missing children from government Child Care Institutions from 2015 to 2021, the Karnataka High Court on Tuesday directed the state government to submit a status report of the investigation done to trace them.
A division bench of Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justice Suraj Govindaraj passed the order after issuing notice to the additional chief secretaries of the departments of Home and Women and Child Development, Director of Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) and Director General and Inspector General of Police.
Advocate S Umapathi, representing the petitioner KC Rajanna from Kolar, argued that the government failed to trace the missing children from the government-owned Child Care Institutions (CCI). He argued that the petitioner obtained information under the Right to Information Act which shows that out of 420 crimes registered between October 2015 and October 2021, about 141 children were not traced by the police department.
The petitioner sought directions to the state to submit the status of 141 untraced children and also establish special ‘Child Police Stations’.