New Delhi: In early October, Pallavi and Javaid Gillani, a Muslim couple, became parents.
In their minds they had been parents for 10 months, ever since Khushi, who is now 13 months old, came under their foster care as they waited for a adoption petition filed by them to be cleared.
In October, Satnam Singh, the Delhi district judge, allowed the Gillanis to be adoptive parents of the child under Section 41 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 (JJ Act).
The Gillanis are believed to be the first non-Hindu couple in New Delhi to have adopted a child under this Act. Under previous laws governing adoption in India, non-Hindus who adopted could never be parents, only guardians. Mint had, on 26 March, reported that the new legislation had brought hope to non-Hindu couples considering adoption.
“If we were only guardians, we would have limited rights,” said Gillani. The Gillanis now plan to apply for a new birth certificate that identifies them as Khushi’s parents. “It will make life easier for all practical purposes,” said Pallavi.
Guardians encounter scores of practical problems related to visas for travel to certain countries, or inheritance (the child isn’t bestowed with automatic inheritance rights in such cases). And the guardian-ward relationship ends when the child turns 21.
The court’s order is potentially controversial and is likely to be challenged by some sections of the Muslim clergy because Islam does not recognize adoption. However, adoption agencies and social activists hope that the order will help the cause of other non-Hindus wishing to adopt—as parents.
“Around 2% of the applications received every year are for guardianship and the rest are all for adoptions mostly by parents from the majority Hindu community,” said Himadri De, administrator at the New Delhi office of the Church of North India Shishu Sangopan Griha (CNISSG), an adoption agency.
“We welcome this order. The JJ Act is a secular legislation. The Act is not well implemented at the moment, but these orders will hopefully change that,” added Loveleen Kakkar, joint secretary in the Union ministry of women and child development.
The Act under which the Gillanis became parents has been in force for seven years—it provides an alternative to the 117-year-old Guardians and Wards Act, under which non-Hindus can only be legal guardians—but almost no one in New Delhi has used it.
Legal experts say this could be because of a combination of lack of awareness and initiative, and that non-Hindu couples in other parts of the country have been leveraging the provisions of the Act to be defined as parents.
“There could be confusion since some look at the JJ Act as a legislation for juvenile delinquents and not for adoption,” said De.