The Bombay High Court reverses the custody judgment and orders a review of the adoption case

Bombay,UPDATED: August 19, 2023 11:14 PM IST

The Bombay High Court reversed and overturned a March 2023 civil court order that ordered the adoptive parents of a two-year-old boy to surrender custody to his birth parents pending the hearing of their adoption application.

Judge Sharmila Deshumkh heard an application filed by the adoptive parents challenging the civil court’s decision dismissing their application for adoption. They claimed that the birth parents officially gave them the child for adoption on July 16, 2021, just two days after his birth. This was disputed by the birth parents.

Read more

The adoptive parents’ lawsuit alleged that the child was born on July 14, 2021 and that the birth parents had no interest in keeping the child. Based on the adoption certificate, the adoptive parents had submitted an adoption application in 2021 to lawfully adopt the child. However, this was rejected in 2022.

The couple then preferred a review, which was also denied on March 8, 2023. A municipal civil court in Mumbai had ordered custody of the minor child to be transferred to the birth parents. The adoptive parents then challenged all of these orders in the Bombay High Court.

The child’s biological parents were unmarried and had also lost their jobs due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021. The couple therefore decided to leave the child in an institution for a few days. In 2021, a woman gave up her child to an NGO for adoption. The adoptive parents adopted the child from the NGO immediately after 2 days.

In the meantime, however, the birth parents realized it was a baby sale scam after the woman they had been in contact with in one case was arrested by Mumbai police. The birth parents also said they discussed the issue with their families and then decided to take their son back and raise him. Therefore, they also rejected the adoption application.

After reviewing the submissions of both sides, the court concluded that the lower court’s decision was made in summary form, without giving the parents an opportunity to present evidence, and that the matter was decided on the basis of affidavits.

“In view of the fact that compliance with the terms of adoption had to be taken into account, it was necessary to clarify questions and present evidence in this regard, and since this had not been done, a lawsuit was out of the question. Record any reliable or convincing evidence in order determine the validity of the adoption,” Judge Deshmukh said.

The civil court rejected the petition for two reasons. Firstly, it was found that the biological parents objected to placing the child for adoption and secondly, that the adoption certificate was not registered under the provisions of the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act (HAMA).

However, Judge Deshmukh found that the order could not be upheld and therefore ordered the civil court to rule on the adoptive parents’ application for adoption within six months. “Given the facts that the child has been with the adoptive parents since he was two years old, the child should remain with the adoptive parents pending the final judgment,” Judge Deshmukh said.

Edited by:

Aishwarya Dakhore

Published on:

August 19, 2023