The pitfalls of mandatory FIRs
The Supreme Court of India has reaffirmed that police must register an FIR for any missing person, not just children. This directive aligns with previous rulings aimed at streamlining the response to human trafficking and missing persons cases.
Why it matters
It establishes a mandatory legal protocol for law enforcement to act immediately on missing person reports, potentially improving recovery rates.
On August 5, the Supreme Court, in G. Ganesh v. State of Tamil Nadu and Others , reiterated that the police must register an FIR upon receiving any information about a missing ‘person’. The court clarified that the expression ‘person’ did not refer only to missing children but included every person.
The Supreme Court in May issued certain directions which inter alia included setting up a special portal by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) dedicated to human trafficking, registration of an FIR without waiting for any preliminary enquiry or leaving it to the guardians or family of the missing person to first search for him/her, activating the anti-human trafficking units (AHTUs) of districts, restoring the recovered child to the rightful guardian in accordance with law and Aadhaar verification or issuance of an Aadhaar card.
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