In a sharp rebuke to law enforcement authorities, the Allahabad High Court on Thursday raised serious concern over the Uttar Pradesh government’s handling of over one lakh missing persons complaints filed in the last two years. The Court termed the situation “alarming” and directed the Additional Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police to appear via video conferencing on February 23 to assist it in the matter.
A Division Bench of Justices Rajan Roy and A.K. Chaudhary issued the direction while hearing a suo motu Public Interest Litigation (PIL) registered under the title “In Re: Missing Persons in the State”. The PIL emerged from the court’s earlier observations in a criminal writ petition filed in January 2026, where the petitioner sought intervention for tracing his son, who went missing in July 2025.
During that hearing, the Bench was informed through an affidavit by the Additional Chief Secretary that as many as 1,08,300 complaints of missing persons had been registered across the state between January 1, 2024 and January 18, 2026. Alarmingly, police action had reportedly been taken in only about 9,700 of these cases. The remaining complaints had not yet triggered any substantial investigative response.
“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 bench remarked.
Expressing dismay over the “lethargic” approach of the police, the Court had, in its earlier order, called for an explanation from the state administration. On Thursday, advocate V.K. Singh, appearing for the government, informed the Bench that the raw data required filtering as many missing persons may have been traced, but updates had not been recorded in the system.
He assured the Court that revised figures would be submitted at the next hearing.
Citing the matter’s grave public importance, the Bench directed the court registry to register the issue as a PIL and monitor it under the newly assigned title. The Court also ordered both the Additional Chief Secretary and the DGP to remain available through video conferencing on the next hearing date to assist in developing a responsive policy approach.
The case is now scheduled for further hearing on February 23, with the High Court poised to scrutinise the updated figures and the state’s roadmap for improving accountability in such matters.
