Uttaranchal High Court: A Division Bench comprising of Ramesh Ranganathan, CJ. and Alok Singh, J. directed the respondent to make sure that every child that was handed over by the ashram was under safe custody of their guardian.
A PIL was filed on the basis of a newspaper report published in the Times of India on account of the disappearance of children from an Ashram at Dehradun by the Uttarakhand State Commission for Protection of Child Rights following which questions were raised as to the loopholes in the physical structure and security arrangement of these ashrams. When the matter was submitted for inquiry to the respective committees, their report had no mention about the missing status of the 18 children. Consequently, an independent committee was set up which has not yet submitted its report.
Hence the Court here considered for fresh examinations wherein 32 children were reportedly handed over to their guardians but on physical verification, it was found that one could not be traceable which was further assured by the respondent that they would continue searching until she was found under safe custody of her guardian.
Accordingly, the petition was disposed of. [Oversight disappearance of Children in the State of Uttarakhand, In re 2018 SCC OnLine Utt 981, decided on 29-11-2018]
