The Jharkhand High Court on Thursday directed the central and state governments to jointly formulate a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to expedite the process of tracing Aadhaar card details in cases involving missing persons, particularly minor victims of human trafficking.
A division bench of Justices Sujit Narayan Prasad and Arun Kumar Rai issued the direction while hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by Chandramuni Urain, whose six-year-old daughter has been missing since 2019 from a village in Gumla district.
The court was informed that the Gumla police had submitted an application to trace the Aadhaar data of the minor girl, but the process had been pending for a significant period. Taking note of the delay, the bench remarked that the current mechanism is “a long process and will hamper the investigation of cases.”
It further observed that in cases involving missing children and suspected human trafficking, “not all matters are reported to the police,” and therefore, a structured SOP would help facilitate immediate intervention and assistance.
On Wednesday, the court ordered that the Director of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) be made a respondent in the case to assist in streamlining the process of Aadhaar data tracing.
The matter will be next heard on February 25.
During the hearing, the High Court was also apprised of a recent incident where Chandramuni Urain was assaulted by fellow villagers who accused her of practising witchcraft. An FIR was registered on February 11 in this regard.
The bench had earlier criticised the Superintendent of Police, Gumla, for failing to take timely action against the assailants. The Jharkhand State Legal Services Authority (JHALSA), which was directed to look into the matter, also submitted a report on the action taken following the assault.
Chandramuni Urain had initially lodged a complaint with the police in 2019 after her minor daughter went missing. However, alleging police inaction, she approached the High Court on September 4, 2025, with a habeas corpus petition, suspecting that her daughter might have been a victim of human trafficking.
She also informed the court that she had been subjected to assault in 2019 by co-villagers over witchcraft allegations, but no FIR was registered at that time. The police countered that she had not been willing to file a formal complaint then.
The case highlights systemic delays and challenges in both child-tracing and protection of vulnerable women in rural areas, prompting the High Court to push for institutional reforms in handling such sensitive matters.
