Share missing kids data with Delhi Police: HC tells Centre
NEW DELHI: Questioning the Centre’s “reluctance” to share data on missing children in the national Capital with Delhi Police, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed the ministry of women and child development (MWCD) to share the information, saying it was their duty to do so.
“The court fails to understand why the MWCD should be reluctant to share the data with Delhi Police. The court further fails to understand (that) with the Delhi Police already having procured the face recognition software (FRS), why unnecessarily money should be spent in again procuring another FRS for the MWCD, particularly when Delhi Police is more than ready to share the FRS with all agencies and departments, including the MWCD,” a bench of Justice S Muralidhar and Justice I S Mehta asked.
The court’s remarks came when the ministry told the court that it would get its own face recognition software to trace the missing children.
In an affidavit, the MWCD said the request of Delhi police to provide the data will “lead to reinventing the wheel”.
“….as per the directions of the Hon’ble Juvenile Justice Committee of Delhi the data of ZIPNET was migrated into Track Child. The request of Delhi Police, if agreed to, would lead to reinventing the wheel. Besides, the process of software development and technical adjustment may take some time,” it said.
The ministry it decided to procure the FRS from the same vendor on the same terms and conditions and at the same cost and that the finance department’s approval has been obtained for that purpose.
It said there is already a web- site called “trackingthemissingchild” and it did not see any need to multiply websites on missing children.
This did not go down well with the bench that said the MWCD “should not mistrust” the Delhi Police and it appeared that they were “reluctant to share the data for no justifiable reason”.
The bench said that it was the task of the security agencies of the country to trace the missing children. “The data available with the MWCD will be of invaluable assistance to Delhi Police in performing the task. How it would subserve the public interest for the MWCD to withhold from the Delhi Police such data is beyond comprehension,” it said.
It directed the MWCD to give electronic access of the complete data to Delhi Police by 11 am on Wednesday, adding that a compliance report should be filed by the ministry’s secretary within four days from today.