Ensure That Children Do Not Escape From Child Care Institutions: Karnataka High Court Seeks ATR From Govt

A division bench of Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justice S R Krishna Kumar said,

"AGA shall also seek instructions as to what effective steps are being taken to ensure that children do not escape from the government child care institutions and the same may be brought on record."

The court gave the direction while hearing a petition filed by Rajnanna KC. Advocate Umapati S appearing for the petitioner submitted that though crimes have been registered about missing children from the institutions, subsequent action to trace the children is not forthcoming.

141 Children Missing From Govt Owned Child Care Institutions: Karnataka High Court Directs State To Produce Investigation Report

The plea states missing children from child care institutions is a serious lapse by the government. It is also said the petitioner received the information under the Right to Information Act.

The plea claims that parents of these missing children, most of them are ignorant, poor and illiterate and they don't even know the fact that their children are missing. They have no access to justice and are incapable of accessing the courts.

The plea also states that as per information received under RTI, between October 2015 to October 2021, around 474 children were missing from the government owned institutions and out of them 141 are still to be traced by the police, across the state.

The plea prays for directions to the respondents to trace the missing children at the earliest; and initiate action against officials responsible for causing missing children. Further, it prays to direct respondents to set up Special Child police units at all police stations.

The government advocate sought time of two weeks to comply with the earlier directions issued by the court about placing on record a report of the investigations done to trace 141 children. Time was sought on the grounds that information is collected from different police stations. The court allowed the same and posted the matter for further hearing on March 29.

Case Title: K C Rajanna v. State of Karnataka

Case No: WP 4021/2022