In Child Missing Cases, Proceed On Presumption Of Kidnapping : Supreme Court Issues Directions To Combat Child Trafficking

Taking serious note of the alarming number of missing children across the country, the Supreme Court on Friday (May 22) issued a slew of directions to address systemic failures in tracing missing children and combating trafficking networks operating across States.

A bench of Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Justice R Mahadevan expressed displeasure with the ever-increasing cases of missing children, upon finding that nearly 47,000 children continue to remain untraced across India, with thousands of new cases being added every year.

“There is a huge gap. Today, as of today, something around 47,000 children remaining untraced. Last year it must be around 10,000. Every year backlog,” Justice Amanullah said.

Further, the Court acknowledged the ground reality that missing children are often victims of organized interstate trafficking syndicates, a problem aggravated by the lack of coordination and integration between the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) database maintained by police authorities and the “Vishal Vasilya” database maintained by child welfare authorities.

Accordingly, in the meantime, the court issued four key directions to deal with the issue:

Firstly, the Court directed the Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt. of India to integrate databases maintained by the different organisation and facilitate real-time sharing of information between police authorities, Child Welfare Committees (CWCs), District Child Protection Units (DCPUs), and child care institutions.

Secondly, expressing the concern about the Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTUs), though established across districts, were either non-functional or existed only on paper. The Court, while questioning the Union Government, directed that all AHTUs across the country be made fully functional within four weeks with adequate powers and infrastructure for effective enforcement.

Thirdly, the Court indicated that whenever a child goes missing, authorities should proceed on the presumption of kidnapping or abduction from the outset. According to the Court, registering such cases under kidnapping provisions would ensure seriousness in investigation and avoid delays caused by procedural uncertainty.

The Court also clarified that investigating agencies should not wait for four months before transferring cases to Anti-Human Trafficking Units if circumstances already indicate trafficking or organized criminal involvement.

Fourthly, the Court directed that recovered children should ordinarily be restored to their families within twenty-four hours, unless there are indications that the family itself was involved in trafficking or exploitation. In such cases, the responsibility would shift to the State and Child Welfare Committees.

Fifthly, emphasizing the need for Aadhaar registration and verification for every recovered child to prevent duplication of identity and facilitate future tracing efforts, the District Child Protection Units were directed to actively coordinate in ensuring Aadhaar integration and monitoring of rescued children.

The Court ordered that the proceedings would continue and that further directions may follow after examining compliance by authorities across the country.

The matter is next listed in August, 2026.

Background

The case originated from a Criminal Revision Petition filed by one G. Ganesh before the Madras High Court after his daughter Kavitha went missing from Chennai on September 19, 2011.

A complaint was lodged at the Virugambakkam Police Station on the same day, following which FIR was registered. However, despite investigation by local police and later by the Central Crime Branch, the child could not be traced.

Eventually, the police filed a closure report treating the case as “undetectable.” The father's protest petition was dismissed, and the Madras High Court also declined interference in March 2025, leading to an appeal before the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court, however, found the approach adopted by the authorities and the High Court deeply troubling, particularly the reasoning that the Ministry of Home Affairs Circular issued in 2013 regarding transfer of long-pending missing child cases to Anti-Human Trafficking Units would not apply because the child had gone missing in 2011.

The bench indicated that as long as a child remains untraced, the obligation to apply child protection guidelines and anti-trafficking protocols continues. Thus it was in this regard, the Court suo motu proceeded to deal the issue of missing child on a pan-India basis, and issued the aforesaid directions, including the direction to re-activate the Anti-Human Trafficking Units in each and every district of the country.

Cause Title: G. GANESH Versus STATE OF TAMIL NADU AND ORS., SLP(Crl) No. 11263/2025