New Delhi, Feb 18 : The Delhi High Court on Wednesday refused to entertain a PIL seeking creation of a dedicated cell in each police station in the city for cases of missing persons and said policing should be left to police authorities.
The petition also sought registration of FIR in all missing person instances, an in-depth probe by the CBI in all such cases as well as creation of a body headed by a retired high court judge to supervise the ‘Joint Task Force’ to examine the “alarming rise in number of missing people in Delhi”.
A bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia said the PIL by Anand Legal Aid Forum Trust sought “omnibus” relief and was devoid of any specific instances where the police had refused to register an FIR.
Relying on media reports, the petitioner’s counsel said the “alarming rise” in the number of missing person cases was a public issue.
“How policing is to be done should be left to the police. Where is the data on how many cases FIR was not registered? Don’t file petitions after reading a newspaper in the morning. Simply because you feel something should be dealt with in a particular manner, can you seek a mandamus?” said the bench.
“It is not for the court to direct police how its organization shall function. The task of constituting a specific cell in each police station in Delhi for missing persons is a job which should be entrusted to the police authorities as the same relates to its functioning,” said the bench as it dismissed the petition.
The counsel for the authorities said the petitioner’s case of an “alarming rise” in missing person cases was not correct.
The court also issued notice to the Centre, Delhi government and Delhi Police on another PIL seeking a direction to the police to furnish the status of the total untraced persons.
The PIL by Jayeeta Deb Sarkar also sought direction to the authorities to formulate and implement a comprehensive protective mechanism and institutional safeguards to prevent the “alarming rise in disappearances”.
Direction is also sought to trace and file a status report on the approximately 53,000 “untraced” persons in the last decade.
“Let response to the petition be filed in four weeks,” the bench said and listed the matter for hearing in April.
Sarkar’s petition asserted that the Right to be Traced and the Right to Investigation in cases of missing persons were intrinsic facets of the Right to Life and Liberty guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution as they protected the dignity of the victims who are often trafficked into forced labour, sexual exploitation, or organ trade.
“The NCT of Delhi has become a ‘transit hub’ and ‘destination’ for the inexplicable disappearance of its residents. Official data reveals a distressing pattern while the State claims recovery rates are improving, the absolute number of untraced individuals remains staggeringly high.
“In the first 15 days of January 2026 alone, 807 people went missing in Delhi; an average of 54 disappearances per day. More chilling is the demographic skew; nearly two-thirds of these were women and girls, exposing a gendered predation that the State machinery has failed to curb,” the petition alleged. (PTI)
