High Court issues Guidelines for streamlining inter-country Adoptions

  

On Monday, the Delhi High Court has issued a slew of directions in order to streamline the process of inter-country adoption of Indian children.

The Guidelines aim to enable adoptive and biological parents to obtain the required Certification, NOCs from all parties involved i.e. District Magistrates, Foreign Authorities and Central Adoption Resource Authority(CARA).

The Court decided to issue the directions while dealing with three petitions concerning inter-country adoption and the petitioners were noted to have been facing similalr issues.

Brief Facts

In all three petitions, the biological parents were based in India while the adoptive parents were foreign based. The process of adoption was duely carried under the provisions of Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956. The process, however, was mired with certain challenges as was clear from the contentions of the petitioners in all three cases.

The issues being faced were particularly in movement of the children abrod (obtaining passports and visa), requirement of NOC from CARA, lack of coordination between the adoptive child, adoptive parents, the relevant foreign agencies, CARA and the biological parents.

The CARA Counsel informed the Court on Adoption (Amendment) Regulations, 2021 notified w.e.f. 17th September, 2021 specifically to lay down the procedure to be followed for adoption of children under HAMA.

"The said Regulations apply to all inter-country adoptions under HAMA, both amongst relatives and non-relatives. Under the said 2021 Regulations, there are broadly two categories:
• Category No.1 are those adoptions which were executed pre-2021 Regulations; and
• Category No.2 are adoptions undertaken post the coming into effect of the 2021 Regulations."

 The CARA further submitted the various steps taken post amendment to ease the adoption process in general and in the present cases as well.

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(i) Appointment of an officer at the level of an Assistant Director as W.P.(C) 279/2019 & connected matters as  the Nodal Officer for dealing with HAMA-related adoptions;

(ii) Communications have been issued to all State Governments through the Principal Secretary, Ministry of Woman and Child Development, informing them of the 2021 Regulations coming into effect and seeking their cooperation in implementation of the same; and

(iii) Various webinars have been conducted by CARA to sensitize all stakeholders, since the first week of November, 2021.

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 High Court Observations and Directions

The Court appointed Advocate Atul Nagarajan as an Amicus Curiae to assist in the petitions and sought suggestion if he has any.

It also asked CARA to submit a Status Report within two weeks providing details of the number of pending applications for inter-country adoption and duration of their pendency, steps taken qua each of the applications and their respective status.

The single-Judge Bench of Justice Pratibha M. Patil issued the following directions in order to provide assistance and enable adoptive and biological parents to obtain the required certification and obtain noobjection from both District Magistrate as also the foreign authorities for CARA's consideration.

(i) Creation of a database of all SDMs/District Magistrates as also the State Adoption Resource Agencies and District Child Protection Unit who will need to be contacted for the purpose of verification and issuance of certificates;
(ii) Publication of such a database on CARA’s website;
(iii) Creation of a help desk at CARA which shall be available both physically and online. The help desk/helpline should have a 24- hour helpline, considering the time differences in different jurisdictions. This would enable adoptive parents to contact CARA as per their convenience. The feasibility of the same shall be reviewed by CARA and shall be submitted before this Court by way of a status report;
(iv) CARA shall also consider permitting advocates/lawyers to appear as authorized representatives to coordinate and facilitate the various formalities that are required to be undertaken;
(v) Mechanism to be created to enable biological or adoptive parents to appear even virtually or be available telephonically, whenever CARA requires to contact them or interact with them; (vi) All communications with foreign authorities or District Magistrates or any other parties made by CARA shall also be copied by an e- W.P.(C) 279/2019 & connected matters Page 7 of 8 mail to the party concerned as also their authorized representatives so that the procedure being followed and the progress of the application is within their knowledge as well. This would also enable the parties concerned to follow up with the concerned foreign authority or with the District Magistrate for issuance of the certification.

Additionally, the Court has issued Notice to CGSC, Union of India so that he can obtain instructions from Joint Secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development. The Court has also sought status report in respect of the implementation of the 2021 Regulations from the Central Govt.

Read Judgement Here:

 

  

SOURCE ; /www.latestlaws.com/ 

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