After Bombay HC rebuke, CWC revokes order denying child’s custody to father, putting child up for adoption

Later, the girl’s father filed a case of kidnapping and under charges of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act against the man, and he was arrested in March 2022. The police recovered the victim and her infant and brought them to Mumbai. They were given shelter at an NGO, which later transferred them to CWC.

The girl, citing social and financial difficulties, surrendered the custody of her minor child in April last year. The man was granted bail by the court in the same month. He applied to meet the child and was allowed the same on humanitarian grounds. He was told that the girl did not want to give the child to him.

After CWC passed an order on December 21, 2022, declaring the child free for adoption, the man filed a habeas corpus plea in the HC earlier this year. The Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) gave the child for adoption on January 3 this year. On June 16, CWC withdrew its December order.

On June 28, CARA’s lawyer told the bench that prospective parents, who were handed over the petitioner’s child, will hand the child back to the adoption committee in the second week of July. On July 14, CARA’s lawyer claimed the child was at a shelter home and an appropriate decision would be taken by CWC for handing over the child as per law within a week.

On July 21, CWC passed an order and rejected an appeal by the petitioner seeking the child’s custody. CWC stated a man “accused of a criminal case cannot take advantage of his own wrong” and put the child up for adoption. The Committee noted that the victim wanted to give the child up for adoption for a ‘better future” and it was “in the best interest of the victim and the child.”

Advocate Ashish Dubey, representing the petitioner, submitted that CWC’s order was uncalled for as the child was neither abandoned nor orphaned as the petitioner, who is the biological father, was seeking the child’s custody even as the child’s mother had married someone else.

The bench questioned CWC as to whether the biological father has no right to the child if the mother has abandoned the child.

“We don’t understand how CWC is conducting its cases. This is nothing but high-handedness by CWC. Are they above the law? First, you (CWC) lose the papers and when we pull you up, you find the papers and then revoke the order. The child is brought back from foster parents. Do you understand the trauma that the child will go through?” the bench questioned.

Thereafter, Additional Public Prosecutor Prajakta P Shinde submitted that the July 21 CWC order will be revoked “since the said order passed is contrary to the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act.”

Shinde added appropriate orders will be passed on the petitioner’s application within 48 hours from Wednesday, which the bench accepted.

The bench said it will hear the plea again on Friday, July 28, to ascertain compliance of the CWC’s assurance.