The court slammed the governments of Arunachal Pradesh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
The Supreme Court today slammed the governments of four states -- Arunachal Pradesh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh -- over their failure to file status reports in cases of missing children.
The Supreme Court, which has summoned the chief secretaries of the states, said, "If a child of a high-profile family is missing, hundreds of policemen trace the child within three days. But if the child of a poor man goes missing, police don't even register a FIR (First Information Report)".
The court told the chief secretary of Chhattisgarh, "You are a small state but (you are) not bothered about missing children. We just want positive information like how many FIRs filed on missing children, how many NGOs are working on this."
The court also criticised the governments of Andhra Pradesh and the newly-created Telangana, saying, "How many months have passed after bifurcation (of Andhra Pradesh), still you have not filed your report".
The court's observations came on a petition alleging police inaction in cases of missing children.
In May 2013, the court had asked all states to file a report on the status of cases of missing children.
According to government figures in March last year, nearly 75,000 children, who have gone missing in India between 2010 and 2013, remain untraced.