BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court has said the First Information Report (FIR) cannot be registered under Section 80 and 81 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, for adopting a child without a valid process, unless the adopted child was deserted by biological or adoptive parents or guardians, or has been declared abandoned by the Child Welfare Committee after due inquiry.
Justice Hemant Chandangoudar passed the order, quashing an FIR registered by the Siddapura police against a 37-year-old woman from Malavatti in Uttara Kannada district. The court said that to constitute an offence punishable under Section 80 of JJ Act, there should be material that a person has offered or receives any orphan, abandoned or surrendered child, for adoption.
Section 2 of the Act specifies that an abandoned child is a child deserted by his biological or adoptive parents or guardians who has been declared abandoned by the committee. In this case, the committee has not declared that the child was deserted by his biological or adoptive parents or guardians to hold that the child which is in custody of the petitioner is adopted.
In the absence of any declaration by the committee, the registration of the FIR against the petitioner for offences under Section 80 of the Act is without substance, the court said.
On receiving information about the adoption of a female child without any valid process, the Child Development Officer at Siddapura filed a complaint against the petitioner, invoking Section 80 and 81 of Act. The petitioner’s counsel argued the allegations in the FIR do not constitute commission of the said offences alleged against the petitioner and FIR registered against petitioner is without any substance.