New Delhi: Voicing concern over the issue of inter-country adoptions where biological parents are directly giving their child for adoption, the Delhi high court on Thursday sought details of the process of adoption in the US.
A bench of chief justice G. Rohini and justice R.S. Endlaw asked Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) to submit the process of adoption in the US and fixed the matter for further consideration on 24 February.
“At present, we are concerned with the fate of the adopted child in US. What will be the status of the child there?” the court said.
The high court was hearing two petitions by US nationals who are unable to take their children adopted from biological parents outside India in the absence of any guidelines in the country on the issue.
At present, India has laws which deal only with adoption of orphaned, abandoned and surrendered child. These adoptions are governed by laws relating to juveniles and by CARA, an autonomous body under the ministry of women & child development. It functions as the nodal body for adoption of Indian children and is mandated to monitor and regulate in-country and inter-country adoptions.
However, there are no guidelines for direct inter-country adoptions and there is no law for regulating the same. One of the petitions, filed through advocate Karan S Thukral, said a woman doctor residing in the US had adopted a child from a couple in Uttar Pradesh and got the adoption deed registered.
