Delhi HC gives Centre 7 days to give access of missing kids’ data to cops

The central government’s standing counsel Anil Soni, appearing for the ministry of women and child development , informed the Delhi high court that the ministry has shared with Delhi Police data of 1,323 missing children and 933 found children from April 7 to May 3.

The Delhi high court on Wednesday gave a week’s time to the ministry of women and child development (MWCD) to complete the process of giving electronic access to Delhi Police on data concerning missing children.

The ministry of women and child development had asked for a month to complete the process of giving electronic access to Delhi Police on data concerning missing children.(HT/Photo for representation)

The ministry had asked for a month to complete the process. However, a bench of Justices S Muralidhar and IS Mehta granted a week’s time to the ministry and listed the matter for May 16.

The MWCD, in the application filed through its secretary, sought extension of time by a month to undertake the entire exercise of transfer of data and said the time be granted “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 central government’s standing counsel Anil Soni, appearing for the MWCD, 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.

The MWCD also sought permission to proceed with the procurement of facial recognition software (FRS) as it may help the ministry in facilitating restoration of missing children in the remaining 35 states and union territories.

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.