Supreme Court Gives States One Month to Digitise Every Police Station, Issues Contempt Notice to Absent Chief Secretaries

The special leave petition, arising from a Madras High Court criminal revision order of 05.03.2025, is being heard as a monitoring matter on missing persons and human trafficking, with a Court-appointed Committee headed by Senior Counsel Ms. Mukta Gupta (opening para). The Committee flagged that many police stations across the country are not connected to a common internet platform and some lack any system to upload case details (para 2). The Court also took up a death in which a body recovered in Gurugram was cremated unidentified; the deceased's sister, an intervenor, raised how unclaimed bodies are handled, and the case's FIR was registered at Lajpat Nagar, Delhi (paras 22-23, 26, 28).

Calling the absence of digital facilities in police stations 'absolutely unacceptable', the Court refrained from severe orders for now but gave States one last opportunity: within one month all police stations and Child Welfare Committees must be computerised with internet access, and every FIR uploaded to the State portal and CCTNS, with privacy- or security-sensitive data redacted (paras 2-4). Procurement must follow NIC specifications, with the State's vigilance head on the committee, and equipment must not be bought from the GeM portal (para 5). It clarified its order of 22.05.2026: a missing person found within 24 hours may have the case closed only if the person's recorded statement shows no criminal role (para 6). NCRB must coordinate seamless integration of portals, including CCTNS and Mission Vatsalya, and CCTV at railway stations, bus stands, airports and ports (paras 9-16). Chief Secretaries absent without exemption were issued contempt notice (para 19). In the Gurugram matter it found 'continuous lapses/blunders' by the police, made the Delhi FIR the substantive one, and called for an SOP on disposing of unidentified bodies (paras 23-28).