The Apex Court made mandatory for states to provide a plain-clothed special juvenile police officer (SJPO) in every police station.

Taking a very serious note of a true bitter fact about the missing of over 1.17 lakh children from 392 districts in India, during the period of January 2008 to January 2010, and Out of them, 41,546 are still untraced The Supreme Court of India has recently issued a ruling whip on Thursday, making it mandatory for all our states to provide a plain-clothed special juvenile police officer (SJPO) in every police station. And in addition to this, the states are also ordered to create a Special Juvenile Police Unit (SJPU), comprising personnel specially trained and oriented for child causes (read offences) in every district and each missing child report must be converted into FIRs. The Supreme Court on Thursday made it mandatory for police stations across the country to compulsorily register missing complaints of any minor and appoint a special police officer to handle complaints of juveniles. Such police personnel should be stationed at every police station in plain clothes. The Hon'ble Apex Court has also emphasized that in the first instance, the police should not shirk its responsibility, but to register an FIR for every missing child complaint. It is also ordered by the Bench to the chief secretaries of Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Goa to be present in court.