Adoption can’t be restricted to those in need of care: High Court

Source: TOI

What is the news?

In a landmark verdict, the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court ruled that adoption can’t be restricted only to orphaned, abandoned, surrendered children or those in conflict with law or in need of care and protection.

Background

A Yavatmal district court had rejected a case of parents to hand over their girl.

View of the district court

The district court held that provisions of the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act, 2015, will not apply since the child is neither in conflict with law nor in need of care and protection and she wasn’t abandoned, orphaned or surrendered.

View of the HC

As per HC, JJ Act, 2015 not only intends to take care of children, who are in conflict with the law and those in need of care and protection but also to provide for and regulate the adoption of children from relatives and step-parents.

• Initially, adoption was undertaken primarily to continue family lineage and ancestor worship, but with the passage of time, it has been undertaken for taking care of the needs of children in distress and those needing care and protection. Consequently, these changes have been codified via various statutes.
• Hence, while partly allowing a revision application filed by the biological and adoptive parents of a girl, HC quashed the Yavatmal district court’s order which had rejected their adoption plea.