BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court directed the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) of the Ministry of Women and Child Development to recognise the adoption of an African boy by an Indian couple residing in Uganda, by issuing a no-objection certificate, since India is a signatory to the Hague Adoption Convention of 1995.
“Though the adoption has not happened under the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, and in a country which is not a signatory to the Hague Convention, the adoption has happened and the rights of a child of Indian citizens, who have adopted, cannot be left marooned,” the court said, while directing CARA to consider the representation of the couple in accordance with law and also observations made in the order.
Justice M Nagaprasanna passed the order while allowing the petition filed by a 43-year-old man and his 42-year-old wife, residents of Uttarahalli in Bengaluru, presently residing in Nairobi in Kenya. They were seeking directions to consider their representation submitted by e-mail on June 8, 2023, concerning cross-border adoption of a child, to CARA to legalise the adoption in terms of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, and Adoption Regulations of CARA, 2022.
The husband is working as a vice-president of a firm in Nairobi and the wife is a software engineer in Kenya. They were residents of Uganda between 2011 and 2018, and shifted to Kenya in 2019, and even today hold Indian passports as they have not renounced Indian citizenship.
They adopted a child, an African, under Ugandan laws in 2014 and the High Court of Uganda declared that they were the adoptive parents of the child and granted consequential rights to the child by allowing the application filed by them.
Desirous for adoption to become formal in India and to conduct their actions in compliance with regulations before CARA, the couple had approached CARA, seeking legal sanctity in India for adoption. This was neither accepted nor rejected by CARA.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Solicitor General of India submitted in court that they will issue a support letter to the couple for issue of passport for entry and exit into the country, and also a no-objection certificate by the competent authority for such adoption, if the procedure is appropriately followed.