A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and V Gopala Gowda said it would like the Centre to "think it over seriously so that an appropriate roadmap is brought into existence on making it (DNA profiling) functional that would echo the voice and cry of the feelings (of relatives of missing persons)."
About 40,000 unidentified bodies are disposed of every year by authorities in India. And every year, thousands go missing. A PIL by Lokniti Foundation had requested the court to direct the Centre for DNA profiling of unclaimed bodies to explore their possible link to missing persons.
Petitioner's counsel Ashok Dhamija said unidentified bodies could be due to serious crime and "since the bodies cannot be identified using traditional methods, perpetrators of possible crime remain untraced and the families, to which the victims belong, never come to know about the fate of their near and dear ones".
Appearing for the government, additional solicitor general N K Kaul said the "Centre was seized of the matter and looking into possibilities as it would involve huge infrastructure, large expenditure and manpower". Kaul said it also involved issues relating to privacy.
The bench said, "Without expressing any opinion, we require the additional solicitor general to obtain specific instructions as to what steps actually have been taken in this regard, within eight weeks." The court posted the matter for further hearing on September 22.
The petitioner had claimed that though the Centre had been considering a proposal for DNA profiling of unidentified bodies since 2007, no decision was taken yet. As per data compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau, the number of unidentified bodies recovered and inquest conducted was 37,282 in 2007, 37,668 (2008), 34,902 (2009), 33,857 (2010) and 37,193 (2011).
In 2011, the highest number of unidentified bodies was recovered in Maharashtra (6,313), followed by Tamil Nadu (4,479), Uttar Pradesh (4,084), West Bengal (3,704), Delhi (2,748), Andhra Pradesh (2,639), Karnataka (2,440), Gujarat (2,099), Madhya Pradesh (1,191), Rajasthan (1,170), Haryana (1,159) and Punjab (1,004).
It said a total of 11,846, 13,586 and 13,268 people went missing in Delhi alone in 2006, 2007 and 2008 respectively. From Andhra Pradesh, a total of 47,936 went missing during 2009-12 and in Gujarat another 37,395 were reported missing during 2007-11.
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