The Supreme Court of India has issued a notice to the Delhi Police in a writ petition seeking mandatory use of biometric identification and other effective methods before cremating or burying unidentified bodies. The plea highlights a troubling case where a man reported missing was later cremated as an “unidentified” person by the police, despite his family already having lodged a missing person complaint.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh heard the matter.
The petitioner in the case is a retired army officer, who alleged that his nephew, originally from Kerala, went missing after arriving in Delhi. The family had filed a missing person complaint at the Vasant Kunj Police Station on October 14, 2024, along with his Aadhaar card and photograph. However, just three days later, on October 17, 2024, police officials from the adjacent IGI Airport Police Station cremated his body, labeling him as an unidentified person.
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According to the petition, the man was found lying on a service road near the IGI Airport, taken to a hospital, and declared “brought dead.” The body was later cremated at an electrified crematorium, with the police claiming that the identity of the deceased could not be determined.
"In this era where Aadhaar-based biometrics is even used for obtaining a new SIM card, the Police Officials have miserably failed by not utilizing biometric identification methods, in spite of submitting the Aadhaar card details of the deceased,” the petitioner stated.
The petitioner strongly contends that the police failed to make even minimal efforts to trace the deceased's family members. He referred to existing protocols like Delhi Police Standing Order No.252/2019 and the Zonal Integrated Police Network (ZIPNet), which were designed for handling missing person cases and identifying unknown dead bodies. Despite their presence, these mechanisms allegedly failed due to poor implementation.
“Since Kerala is not using Zipnet, the scope of identifying the deceased was further limited. [Only 8 States are presently using Zipnet],” the petition noted.
The lack of coordination and the negligence of police officials resulted in the deceased’s family not being able to perform the last rites according to their religious customs. The petitioner claimed that this failure violated several fundamental rights under the Constitution, including:
- Article 21 – Right to life and personal liberty
- Article 14 – Right to equality
- Article 19(1)(a) – Freedom of speech and expression
- Article 25 – Freedom of religion
"It is evident that the existing framework for addressing missing and unidentified persons is limited, and that police officials from both stations have been blatantly negligent, even disregarded the existing framework," the petitioner argued.
The plea seeks the following reliefs:
- A judicial inquiry into the negligence of the police officials who failed to inform the family of the deceased, even though a missing person complaint was already filed.
- Compensation for the dependents of the deceased for the emotional and religious suffering caused due to the police’s actions.
The petition has been filed through Advocate-on-Record Jose Abraham.
Case Title: CHACKO KARIMBIL v. UNION OF INDIA, W.P.(C) No. 255/2025
