Supreme Court orders mandatory kidnapping FIRs for missing persons nationwide on May 22, 2026

Key facts

• The Supreme Court (SC) has mandated all police stations nationwide to register a kidnapping case under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for every missing person or child.
• A committee headed by Justice (retd) Mukta Gupta, including P.M. Nair and Veerendra Kumar Mishra, was constituted to frame a pan-India standard operating procedure (SOP) for tackling missing children cases.
• The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) reported that 47,000 children remain untraced across India.
• The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has been directed to establish a national data grid and a specific portal to address human trafficking, missing children, and women.
• The SC directed all Directors General of Police (DGPs) and police chiefs of union territories to ensure that Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTUs) are functional and empowered.