Bombay HC Takes Suo Motu Cognisance Of Delays In Adoption Cases; Issues Notice To Centre, CARA

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Monday took suo motu (on its own) cognizance of delay in and long waiting period in adoption cases and issued notices to the Central government and the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA).

A bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice MS Karnik said the public interest litigation has been initiated based on a letter received by it and a news report that highlighted the issue of long waiting period for adoptive parents.

According to a media report last month, the average adoption waiting period had increased to three-and-half years in India. The bench has appointed senior counsel Milind Sathe and advocate Gaurav Shrivastava as amicus curiae (friend the court) to assist with the matter.

The bench directed the Union of India and CARA to file its affidavits and scheduled the matter for further hearing on June 23.

"We take suo motu cognisance of the communication (letter) written to the one of us (Chief Justice Aradhe) on April 3 and also the news report 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,” the bench said in its order.

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”.