‘For foreign adoptions,grant citizenship to child’

Bajpai told the court on Friday that it was also proposed in the expert committee meeting that foreign adoptions should be granted after seeking a final order from Indian courts under Hindu adoption and maintenance Act or the Juvenile Justice Act only.

Bajpai also urged that no child should be repatriated without the permission of the court that granted the adoption. The CARA,however,refused bearing the financial responsibility of repatriated children. The regulatory authority said it would only ensure that the foreign and Indian adoption agencies abide by their undertakings given to the court.

“This decision doesn’t say one way or another,” Justice DY Chandrachud remarked. Additional solicitor general D J Khambata said in certain cases,if children are kept in an unhealthy environment,repatriation might be necessary. But if children cannot be repatriated without a court order,they will be held “hostage to fortune”.

Bajpai said the generation of a corpus for welfare of repatriated children was not very well received by the committee as there are Central and state children welfare funds worth Rs 67 crore which are lying unutilised.

Bajpai pointed out that these funds are used for children who are rape victims as well. “One reads about child rape every other day. Something should be provided to these children,” Justice Chandrachud remarked. He observed that these trusts might exist on paper only.

The Federation of Adoption Agencies told the court that the generation of the corpus might not be feasible as the percentage of children repatriated in the last five years is only 0.27 per cent. Justice Chandrachud,however,said that repatriation has a severe qualitative impact on children and the court has to deal with the human issue.

The need for the court to frame adoption guidelines arose after a 14-year-old girl was sent back by her American adoptive parents after she developed psychiatric and behavioral problems. The court was told the girl is doing very well in a care centre in Gurgaon now.

The court has directed the CARA to file a final affidavit in the case by April 16.