Expressing surprise over lack of provision under IPC to find missing person, the Madras High Court has suggested Centre to enlarge the scope of CrPC  Section 174 so as to include man missing cases in it.

The Court made the observation while hearing a habeas corpus plea from Maheswari seeking to trace her daughter, an undergraduate student who went missing from February 14 from her hostel. Maheswari had filed a police complaint on February 15 and since no action was taken, the petitioner moved the court.

“This court is unable to understand how an offence, which is not stated in the IPC, has been invented by the police officials and FIRs are registered…Therefore, Section 174 of the Code of Criminal Procedure should be amended to include man missing cases under this provision so that an enquiry could be conducted,” the division bench of Justices N Kirubakaran and Abdul Quddhose noted.

—India Legal Bureau