Suo Moto PIL On Missing Persons In UP | Allahabad High Court Summons DGP, Home Secy Over 'Insufficiency' Of Efforts

Hearing the suo motu PIL registered pursuant to an order passed by a division bench last month over a large number of persons missing in the state and the state police's inaction, the Allahabad High Court last week summoned the Additional Chief Secretary, Home and the Director General of Police.A bench of Justice Rajan Roy and Justice has directed them to file their affidavits, bringing on record the complete data regarding missing persons reported at various police stations throughout the State, and the mechanism used to trace such missing persons.The bench has also inquired as to whether there is any SOP in this regard. If not, the State Government has been directed to issue an SOP for the guidance of police personnel and others, so that such information does not go unaddressed or uninvestigated.The matter will be heard next on March 23, when the Additional Chief Secretary, Home, and the DGP will have to join the proceedings via video conferencing and assist the bench on the 'important' issues.It may be recalled that on January 29, a bench of Justice Abdul Moin and Justice Babita Rani had expressed strong dismay over the UP Government's own admission that between January 2024 and January 2026, approximately 1,08,300 missing person complaints were registered and only in 9,700 such cases action was taken by the State Police to trace out the persons.The bench had directed the registration of a PIL titled 'In re- Missing persons in the State'. The order was passed, taking strong exception to the prima facie lackadaisical attitude of the authorities in tracing the missing persons.The Court had also taken note of the "total lack of seriousness" on the part of the authorities to act upon the missing complaints that are lodged by the State residents.Hearing the petition on February 4, the PIL bench of the HC observed thus:"...no doubt it (PIL) raises important issues of larger public interest pertaining to missing persons throughout the State of Uttar Pradesh, the mechanism, if any, in place for tracing them out and taking necessary action on the information provided to the police by the near ones, etc. of such missing persons, which as of now does not appear to be up to effective..."Case title - In Re- Missing Persons In The StateClick Here To Read/Download Order

Suo Moto PIL On Missing Persons In UP | Allahabad High Court Summons DGP, Home Secy Over 'Insufficiency' Of Efforts

Sparsh Upadhyay

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