New Delhi, Dec. 10 -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday laid the ground for a coordinated pan-India effort to tackle cases of missing children by directing the ministry of home affairs (MHA) to appoint a nodal officer to coordinate with all states and union territories for consolidating a central repository of data on missing children complaints, recoveries and cases pending prosecution in courts since January 2020.

Passing the order in a public interest litigation filed by a non-profit organisation Guria Swayam Sevi Sansthan which flagged the proliferation of inter-state crime syndicates behind the rising number of missing children cases across states, the top court directed the states and UTs to provide updated information for the past five...