CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has directed the state government to trace the whereabouts of 27 children reported to be missing from the Sri Baladevjew Seva Ashram, a private child care institution (CCI) at Alakunda under Binjharpur police station limits of Jajpur district.
The court was hearing a petition filed by one Sudipta Kumar Sahoo alleging the CCI was functioning illegally without renewing the registration and also seeking rescue of her two daughters who were kept in confinement there.
According to the high court order, the state government informed that of the 31 children living there, four including the two daughters of the petitioner had been rescued as on April 21.
Additional government advocate Suman Pattanayak submitted that the elder daughter of the petitioner is living in the registered home on the order of the child welfare committee (CWC). The younger daughter is put into the custody of an aunt under kinship, also by the order of the CWC.
However, advocate Ramakanta Sarangi appearing for Sri Baladevjew Seva Ashram submitted that the children have been restored to their respective parents. Sarangi also alleged that because of the lackadaisical attitude of the authorities in relation to renewal and/or extension of the registration certificate, the Ashram is suffering.
Taking note of it, the two-judge bench of Chief Justice Harish Tandon and Justice MS Raman directed the state government to depute a responsible officer to visit the person who instructed advocate Ramakanta Sarangi to make such submission and collect the address of the respective parental residence of the untraceable children.
“Such exercise shall be completed within a week,” the bench specified in the April 30 order which was uploaded on May 2, while asking Sarangi to communicate the order to a competent person of the Ashram for effective compliance thereof.
“Though we would have put to rest this litigation as children of the petitioner have been rescued and put into a Juvenile Justice system but taking into account the fact that 27 children are still untraceable, we cannot absolve our responsibility to take care of their well-being,” the bench clarified and posted the matter to May 12.