New Delhi, Aug 30 - The Supreme Court has ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to trace a US-born minor who was abducted by his Indian mother from New York and brought here after she divorced her estranged husband.

A bench of Justice Tarun Chatterjee and Justice R.M. Lodha ordered the CBI director to trace the child on a plea by his father V. Ravi Chandran, who moved the apex court for its help in September 2007 after after his divorced wife brought the child to India violating a New York supreme court's order, granting him and his divorced wife joint custody of the child.

The bench ordered the CBI to intervene after the police of various states failed to trace the minor child, with his mother Vijayashree Voora consistently on the move from one state to another, dodging the police for the last two years.

'We direct the registry of this court to write a letter to the director, CBI, requesting him to trace minor Adithya Chandran,' said the apex court in a ruling, delivered Friday, but released Saturday.

To facilitate the CBI's task, the apex court also gave special powers to the CBI director, extending the jurisdiction of the officer all over India and directed state police not to impede his work of searching for the minor boy.

'For the said purpose, he (CBI director) and the officer nominated by him will enjoy all the powers of police officer (for) carrying out search and issue non-bailable warrants, if necessary, and pick up minor Adithya Chandran wherever he is found without interference from any one and to produce him before this Court with his report,' the court said.

The apex court's order came on the plea by New York-based medical practitioner, Ravi Chandran, who got married to Vijayashree Voora in Tirupathi in December 2000. The couple had a son on July 1, 2002 in the US.

But shortly thereafter, relations between the couple turned sour and Voora moved New York's apex court in July 2003 for divorce.