Missing person cases: HC seeks more details from top Uttar Pradesh officials

If there is no procedure to trace missing persons, state should formulate SOP for the same, observes Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Thursday sought a reply from the additional chief secretary (home) and the Uttar Pradesh director general of police on the issue of 1.08 lakh missing persons in Uttar Pradesh.

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court directed the two officials to appear before it through video conferencing on March 23, the next date of hearing on the public interest litigation filed on the issue. (REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE)

The court directed the two officials to appear before it through video conferencing on March 23, the next date of hearing on the public interest litigation filed on the issue.

It also sought a justification for not taking proper action by the authorities in these cases.

The court also directed the ACS (home) and DGP to file their personal affidavits by that date dealing with the said issues. It also sought more details and records with data pertaining to the missing persons.

Hearing the PIL registered as per the court’s order of January 29, the division bench of Justice Rajan Roy and Justice Abdhesh Kumar Chaudhary asked the two top officials as to what mechanism they are adopting to trace the such missing persons across the state.

If there is no procedure, the state should formulate a SOP for the same, the court observed, said the petitioner’s counsel Onkar Nath Pandey. Government advocate V.K. Singh appeared for the state government.

Earlier, on January 29, another division bench of the high court had directed to register a public interest litigation on the issue and list the matter before the appropriate bench on February 5.