New Delhi, Sep 27 (UNI) The Supreme Court has directed the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to collect data on organized child trafficking in India and file a report, on the number of children reported missing from each district and the action plan to rescue them, by the first week of November, a lawyer said on Friday.
A Bench comprising Justice Hrishikesh Roy and Justice SVN Bhatti, while quashing several High Court orders that had granted bail to six individuals accused of being part of a child trafficking racket, took note of the increasing incidents of the heinous crime.
The Apex Court while pronouncing its order on September 23, noted that the accused were involved in the kidnapping of a four-year-old boy, and the racket operated across the states of Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Rajasthan.
The Apex Court turned down the Rajasthan High Court order which had granted them bail, saying the bail has been granted without fully considering the gravity of the charges.
The court noted that the charges against the accused were of a heinous nature that could attract a minimum sentence of 14 years, with the possibility of life imprisonment if convicted.
The Apex Court held that the High Court had pronounced its order without considering the relevant parameters in such serious cases.
The Court allowed a plea challenging the bail orders and at the same time noted that the nature of the crime and the potential involvement of the accused in an organized child trafficking racket required stricter scrutiny.
The Apex Court acknowledged the plea filed by the same petitioner, which highlighted the dire situation in which children are targeted by trafficking networks.
The petitioner submitted that traffickers often identify vulnerable children, particularly from impoverished families, and sell them for exploitation.
The Court then directed the MHA to provide specific details, including how many cases of missing children have been registered in each District/State since 2020.
The Court asked the MHA to inform the court that from the registered cases, how many children have been rescued within the stipulated period of 4 months and how many are yet to be rescued?
“Whether a functional Anti-Human Trafficking Unit in each district is established and if so (the number of cases entrusted to the respective Anti-Human Trafficking Units),” the court asked.
The court asked the investigating agencies as to what actions they intend to take in delayed cases of investigation or non-recovery of the missing child.
Appearing for the petitioner, Senior Advocate Aparna Bhat, Advocates Rajkumari Banju Mayank Sapra, Karishma Maria, and Lalima Das contended that the organized trafficking networks operating across several states are increasing the difficulty of tracking and rescuing victims.
The Court took note of an affidavit filed by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs on September 23, which detailed advisories issued to all states and union territories on three key aspects of trafficking prevention, protection, and prosecution.
Advocates Vishnu Shankar Jain, Arvind Kumar Sharma, Swati Ghildiyal, Saurabh Pandey, Mani Munjal, Garvesh Kabra, Abhishek Jaju, Pooja Kabra, Sujata Upadhyay, Avanish Deshpande, Sunny Choudhary, Sarad Kumar Singhania also discussed the issues in context with the larger issues of organized child trafficking.
The Court acknowledged the Central government’s efforts to provide financial assistance for upgrading or establishing Anti-Human Trafficking Units in all districts nationwide.
Supreme Court said, “Special financial assistance is also provided by the Union Government to the States/Union Territories, for upgrading/setting up of the Anti-Human Trafficking Units covering all the districts in the country.
Coordination with all the stakeholders regularly was also mentioned in the counter affidavit filed by the MHA.
“A national Level communication platform called the Crime Multi Agency Centre (Cri-MAC) was launched in the year 2020 which facilitates the dissemination of information about child trafficking crimes, on a real real-time basis,” the MHA affidavit said.
The Court directed Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, to file its report in six weeks.
