Jharkhand HC directs Centre, state to formulate SOP for accessing Aadhaar card details by police

On directions of the High Court, a team of Jharkhand Legal Services Authority also presented a report on action taken after Chandramuni was assaulted in the village. The high court on Wednesday had slammed the Gumla superintendent of police for not taking action against those who assaulted Urain, branding her a witch.

The Jharkhand High Court on Thursday directed the central and state governments to formulate a standard operating procedure (SOP) with regard to tracing Aadhaar card details of victims. A bench comprising Justices Sujit Narayan Prasad and Arun Kumar Rai was hearing a petition filed by a woman, Chandramuni Urain, whose minor daughter has been missing since 2019 from Gumla. The court was informed that the police had applied for tracing the Aadhaar card details of the minor victim, and the application has been pending for quite some time. The court observed that this is a long process and will hamper the investigation of cases. Hence, a mechanism needs to be developed where tracing of the Aadhaar card required by the police becomes faster, the high court observed. In cases of children, being victims of human trafficking, not all matters are reported to the police, and an SOP will be required for immediate intervention by the police to trace the whereabouts of victims, the bench said. The court on Wednesday ordered the petitioner to make the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) director a party in the case. The court was also informed that the police had registered an FIR on February 11 for the alleged assault made on Chandramuni Urain by villagers earlier this month under suspicion of practising witchcraft. On directions of the High Court, a team of Jharkhand Legal Services Authority also presented a report on action taken after Chandramuni was assaulted in the village. The case will again be heard on February 25. The high court on Wednesday had slammed the Gumla superintendent of police for not taking action against those who assaulted Urain, branding her a witch. Urain had moved the court to trace her missing daughter. She was six years old when she disappeared in 2019. During the hearing, she had submitted that she was also assaulted by her co-villagers who branded her as a witch in the same year, but the police did not take action. The police, on the other hand, said that the woman was not willing to lodge a formal complaint about the assault. Urain had lodged a complaint in 2019 after her daughter went missing from the village. However, since no significant action was taken by the police to recover her daughter, Urain filed a petition for habeas corpus before the high court on September 4, 2025, suspecting that her daughter is a victim of human trafficking.

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