“It’s an alarming situation. In the last six months more than 2,000 children went missing,” a bench comprising Chief Justice A P Shah and Justice Sanjiv Khanna said.

However, the police claimed that in a majority of these cases, children run away from their homes for reasons like elopement, and they do not come in the category of ‘missing children’.

“We are more concerned about the missing children under eight years of age, and we file an FIR only when there is an allegation of kidnapping,” advocate Mukta Gupta, who appeared for the police, contended.

The court, however, was not satisfied with the response.

“If a child does not return, how will the parents know whether the child has gone away or has been kidnapped till you don’t conduct an investigation,” the court said, adding that the actual figures might be higher “because FIRs are not registered in all cases”.