Overview
- The Lucknow bench registered a suo motu PIL titled 'In re: Missing Persons in the State' after an affidavit showed roughly 1,08,300 complaints from January 1, 2024 to January 18, 2026 with police action in about 9,700 cases.
- A division bench of Justices Rajan Roy and A K Chaudhary directed the Additional Chief Secretary (Home) and the DGP to appear via video conferencing on March 23 and to file personal affidavits justifying the response so far.
- The court sought complete data and records and asked what mechanism exists to trace missing persons, adding that the state should frame a standard operating procedure if none is in place.
- State counsel said the raw tally requires filtering because some traced persons may not be reflected in records and assured updated figures would be presented at the next hearing.
- Judicial scrutiny followed a petition by Vikrama Prasad over his son’s July 2024 disappearance, after which the bench condemned a lethargic approach and called the situation alarming.