The Supreme Court today expressed serious concern over recent cases of rape and sexual abuse of women at shelter homes in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. The Supreme Court's observation came while hearing a matter relating to sexual abuse of children at orphanages.

A bench of justices Madan B Lokur, S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta while referring to the recent incident at Pratapgarh in Uttar Pradesh where 26 women have been reported to be missing from shelter homes asked when these horrific incidents will stop.

The apex court on May 5 last year, had passed a slew of directions including setting up of a data base of children living in orphanages and child care institutions to ensure their safety and welfare.

The Court had directed the Centre, state governments and union territories to complete the registration of all child care institutions by the year-end.