Delhi High Court Dismisses PIL Seeking 'Omnibus' Relief Over Missing Person Cases, Says Policing Must Be Left To Police

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday rejected a public interest litigation seeking “omnibus” prayers over the recent issue of persons being missing from the national capital.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia rapped the petitioner- Anand Legal Aid Forum Trust, noting that the PIL did not contain specific instances or details on the issue.

As the counsel appearing for the Trust said that the issue was serious, the Bench remarked:

“Therefore take the matter seriously. Simply because you feel an issue should be dealt in a particular manner cannot be a basis to seek a mandamus. “They should do this, they should do that.” How policing is to be done has to be left to the police.”

The Bench also said that the petition did not disclose any data or instance where the aggrieved person has approached the police authorities but FIR has not been registered.

“General omnibus prayers. You have to give the instances. Filing petition and discussing social problems are different. For filing a petition, you have to give specific instances to the Court. There are no instances (here),” the CJ said.

Dismissing the plea, the Court said that except for giving numbers of persons who have said to have gone missing in the year 2020-2025, no specific instance was cited in the PIL where a person has gone missing and attempt to lodge an FIR has failed.

“No specific information has been disclosed in the writ petition where FIR has been refused to be lodged by the police in case family member of the missing person has approached the police station. Accordingly, the prayers a and b are omnibus and cannot be granted,” the Court said.

On the prayer seeking a direction on CBI for conducting an in depth investigation in all missing cases, the Court said that no such direction can be issued in absence of specific details of missing cases being reported.

On the prayer seeking constitution of a body headed by a retired judge and for supervising the joint task force over alarming missing cases in Delhi, the Court said:

“Policing is a task which should be left to the police authorities.”

The Bench also observed that it is not for the Court to give directions to the police authorities how their organization should function.

It added that constitution of specific cell in each police station in Delhi for reporting missing persons is job entrusted to the police as the same relates to their functioning. As to what should be the structure of the police can be best determined by the authorities concerned, the Court said.

“We are not inclined to entertain the writ petition. The same is dismissed,” the Court ordered.

Title: Anand Legal Aid Trust v. Union of India & Ors