Centre gives electronic access to Delhi Police on missing children data, HC told

The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) today told the Delhi High Court that it has given electronic access to the Delhi Police on data concerning missing children.

A bench of Justices S Muralidhar and I S Mehta listed the matter for May 31 when the Delhi Police would inform it about the progress in the process of tracing missing children through the electronic mode.

During the hearing, central government standing counsel Anil Soni, appearing for MWCD, informed the bench that they have shared the electronic access with the Delhi Police.

The court had on May 9 granted a week's time to the ministry to undertake the entire exercise of transfer of data after the MWCD had sought time "for providing arrangement/design module for enabling Delhi Police ZIPNET application to electronically search 'found children' data on the link from the www.trackthemissingchild.gov.in."

The ministry had sought a month's time to complete the process but the court had granted it only a week.

 

The government counsel had earlier informed the court that the ministry has shared with the Delhi Police data of 1,323 missing children and 933 found children from April 7 to May 3.

The ministry has made arrangement through National Informatics Centre to share data of children with the Delhi Police through e-mail on daily basis as it was agreed in the May 2 meeting, it had said.

The court had earlier asked the police to run on a trial basis the FRS, developed by a private entity, which could help trace and rescue missing children.

Earlier, NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) had given a proposal to give the software to the Delhi Police free of cost.

Senior counsel H S Phoolka and advocate Prabhsahay Kaur, appearing for the NGO, had submitted in the court that Vision Box, the software developer, has offered the FRS free of cost for one year, provided it was used only for tracing missing children.

The bench was hearing a PIL regarding missing children and was examining ways and means to address the issue of tracing and restoring them to their families.