Bombay High Court Takes Suo Moto Cognizance Of ‘Long Waiting Periods’ For Adoption Of Children In India
The Bombay High Court on Monday took suo motu cognisance of the issue pertaining to the “waiting period” for potential adoptive parents for adopting children in India, which has risen to 3.5 years.
A division bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Makarand Karnik initiated a suo motu PIL based on a news report published in a leading daily, which stated that as of date, for many of the prospective adoptive parents (PAPs) the process of adopting a child in India, continues to be a challenge. The report further while relying on the data provided by the Central Adoption Resources Authority (CARA) stated that a PAP on an average has to wait for a period of three and a half years for seeking to adopt infants or young children.
“We take suo motu cognisance of the communication (letter) written to the one of us (Chief Justice Aradhe) on April 3 and also the report published in the Times of India on the same day (April 3), which highlights the grievances of the potential parents in waiting for their turn to adopt a child in India,” CJ Aradhe recorded in the order.
The bench therefore issued notices to the Union of India, CARA and other relevant authorities.
Further, the bench appointed Senior Advocate Dr Milind Sathe along with Advocate Gaurav Shrivastava as Amicus Curiae in the matter.
The bench has made the notice returnable on June 23, the day when it would be hearing the matter.
According to the news report, only 2,400 children were available for adoption which was comparatively too less than the total number of 35,500 registered PAPs. Of these 2,400 children only 943 were classified as “normal.”
