The high court said a uniform application of the Standard Operating Procedure across all age groups could result in delaying the recovery process of missing children. The Delhi High Court made its displeasure known after it came to light that a hi-tech software was unable to help solve missing children cases in the city where over 5,000 kids are untraceable in last three years. The high court noted that it was a matter of great concern that such a large number of children were missing in the city. “We are told that use of facial recognition software has not helped in cracking any case of missing children so far, which comes as a surprise. It is most unacceptable that the software adopted by the Delhi Police after due diligence has not borne any result,” the court said. The Anti-Human Trafficking Unit had earlier informed the court that 14,756 of the total 19,916 missing children were traced and reunited with their families. “5,160 children are yet to be traced. Such a large number of children going missing and that too in three years is a matter of grave concern,” the bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Manoj Kumar Ohri noted. The high court said a uniform application of the Standard Operating Procedure across all age groups could result in delaying the recovery process of missing children. Appearing for NGO ‘Bachpan Bachao Andolan’, senior advocate H S Phoolka informed the court that the police have not complied with its earlier orders to ensure one dedicated officer in the Special Juvenile Police Unit at every police station. The DCPCR was also not monitoring the SOP required to be followed in these cases, he added.