Woman missing for eight years was living in shelter home: HC told

Eight years after she went missing, a mentally challenged woman was found from a shelter home to which she had been sent by the police as she had lost her way home.

The woman, who had been living at the Asha Kiran shelter home all these years and gave birth to a boy there, was traced after her father moved the Delhi High Court last year seeking her whereabouts.

The facts of the case prompted the court to question as to why she could not be traced earlier when her custody had been handed over by the police in 2011 to the shelter home.

 

A bench of Justices Manmohan and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal noted further that while her father has declined to take care of her as he lives alone, her husband was not in a position to look after her as he is deaf and dumb as well as blind in one eye.

The court observed that in this scenario, the woman's interests would be best served if she remains at the shelter home.

It also said that better coordination is required between the Delhi Police and other stakeholders including shelter homes.

"Consequently, this court directs the Chief Secretary, Delhi government, to convene a meeting to which all stakeholders should be invited, including the Commissioner of Police and or his senior representative.

"In this meeting, an endeavour should be made to ensure that the data of lost/missing persons residing in shelter homes or in private institutions is shared with the police on a real time basis," the court said in its order on Thursday.

The order came on the habeas corpus plea moved last year by the woman's father.

According to the statement the woman had recorded before a metropolitan magistrate, she had lost her way home in 2011 and the police had handed her over to the shelter home.

While in the shelter home she gave birth to a boy who is now living in a observation home for kids called Nirmal Chhaya, the high court was told.

It was also told that she already had a son before she had gone missing and the older boy was not studying in any school.

Delhi government standing counsel Rahul Mehra and advocate Chaitanya Gosain, appearing for the police, told the court that the woman's elder son was would be admitted in a nearby government school.

The bench, thereafter, directed that an Inspector of the Directorate of Education should keep periodic checks on the educational progress of the elder son.

The court also directed that a status report be filed in two weeks with regard to the well being of the younger boy and listed the matter for further hearing on August 20.