The Supreme Court on September 24, 2025 heard a PIL concerning the recovery of kidnapped and trafficked children. The Division Bench of Justice B.V Nagarathna and Justice R. Mahadevan suggested a creation of a common national portal to trace, track and recover those missing/trafficked children.
The case is regarding the difficulties while tracing kidnapped and trafficked children to restore them back to their families. The petitioners submitted that recovery of children could be complex as a child kidnapped and trafficked from one state could be in custody of a third state. The lack of coordination among police units across States and Union Territories resulting in delayed or failed recovery of missing children was also highlighted by the petitioners.
The Court observed that a well-coordinated system was needed to be run by the supervision and control of the Home Ministry, Union of India. Therefore, each State was suggested to designate a qualified officer to register complaints on the portal to circulate information accessible to all States and Union Territories, who would in turn coordinate with the officer-in-charge at the Home Ministry. The Additional Solicitor General sought time to obtain instructions for the creation of such a common portal and accordingly, the Court listed the matter listed again for October 14, 2025.
Appearances:
For Petitioner(s) : Advs- Ms. Aparna Bhat, Sr. Adv. Ms. Rajkumari Banju, AOR Ms. Karishma Maria, Adv. Ms. Madhulika Mohta
For Respondent(s): A.S.G. Ms. Aishwarya Bhati, Ms. Swati Ghildiyal, Adv. Mr. Vishnu Shankar Jain, Adv. Mr. Saurabh Pandey, Adv. Ms. Mani Munjal, Adv. Ms. Aastha Singh, Adv. Mr. Arvind Kumar Sharma, AOR Ms. Anupriya Srivastava, Adv. Ms. Riddhi Jad, Adv. Ms. Shirka Mehra, Adv. Mr. Ajay Kumar Mishra Sr. Advocate General Up, Adv. Mr. Garvesh Kabra, AOR Mrs. Pooja Kabra, Adv. Mr. Ankur Agnihotri, Adv. Mr. Deepesh Kumar Makker, Adv. Mr. Sarad Kumar Singhania, AOR 1 Ms. Rashmi Singhania, Adv. Mr. Divynk Panwar, Adv. Ms. Nidhi Jaswal, AOR Mr. Lilin Singh Hijam, AG, SR. Adv. Mr. P.Ramesh Kumar, AOR , Adv. Mr. Karun Sharma.
