The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Thursday heard a suo motu petition regarding missing persons in Uttar Pradesh and sought all data and records from the relevant state government departments.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for March 23.
The court also ordered the Additional Chief Secretary for Home Affairs and the Director General of Police to be present during the hearing via video conferencing at the next hearing.
This order was passed by a division bench comprising Justices Rajan Roy and A K Chaudhary.
The case came to light when no action was taken in the disappearance of the youths in Lucknow. Vikrama Prasad, a resident of the Chinhat area, told the court that his son had gone missing in July 2024. He had also filed a missing person report at the Chinhat police station, but no appropriate action has been taken by the police.
Earlier, the court ordered the Additional Chief Secretary, Home, to take action on the petitioner’s information and provide detailed information regarding missing persons in the state.
In compliance with the order, the Additional Chief Secretary’s affidavit stated that, based on information filed with the police between January 1, 2024, and January 18, 2026, as many as 1,08,300 people had gone missing.
The affidavit also stated that only 9,700 of these missing persons had been located. Commenting on these figures, the court said that this indicated that the work of the relevant authorities regarding missing persons was not satisfactory.
The court termed the situation as serious and ordered it to be registered as a public interest litigation titled ‘Regarding Missing Persons in the State’, which was heard today.