LUCKNOW: The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has registered a suo motu public interest litigation (PIL) related to the missing of over one lakh people in Uttar Pradesh in the last two years.
The court also expressed its anguish that out of the 1,08,300 missing cases, police acted only in 9,700 cases.
Calling the situation alarming, the bench said that the data was shocking. "We are aghast at the attitude of the authorities in addressing the complaints pertaining to missing persons, which obviously requires a sense of urgency on the part of the authorities," the court observed.
A division bench, comprising Justice Abdul Moin and Justice Babita Rani, remarked on a criminal writ petition filed by Vikrama Prasad. The petitioner had alleged that his son had gone missing in July 2024, but the police were not taking any interest in finding him. He had, therefore, approached the court seeking direction to the police authorities to act and search his son.
While taking up the matter, the bench sought a detailed affidavit of the additional chief secretary, home, and from his affidavit, it came out that from January 1, 2024 to January 18, 2026, a total of 1,08,300 missing person complaints were registered, in which action was taken only in 9,700 cases.
In the rest of the cases, the police were yet to start any action. Having come across the said figures, the bench was pained at the police inaction in searching out missing persons. Considering the matter in larger public interest, the bench directed its registry to register the matter as a PIL titled as "missing persons in the state" and directed to list the matter on February 5.