MADURAI: Empathising with the pain of a childless couple, the Madurai Bench of HC handed over an ‘abandoned child’ who was raised by them without following any legal adoption norms. Quashing the FIR filed against couple Helen Anitha and her husband, Justice N Anand Venkatesh said that the childless couple, without understanding the consequences of what they were doing and with lot of craving and desperation in their heart, started bringing up the child as their own.
“It is true that the child was not adopted in accordance with law, and the mandatory procedures was not followed. That by itself will not make the act of the first petitioner, an offence. It was more of an act of a craving mother,” the Judge said.
Turning down the suspicion advanced that whether the couple be called child traffickers, the Judge said, “The only answer that this Court can give is an “emphatic No”..(sic) By no stretch of imagination, can the couple be said to be exploiting the child.”
Pointing out that when the child was taken to a home by the Child Welfare Committee it refused to take food and subsequently was handed over to the couple, the Court was firm that it did not want to precipitate the issue and take away the child from the foster parents. Before quashing the FIR, the Judge noted that the disregard of the adoption procedure would not make the act an offence.
Allowing the child to be raised by the couples, the Judge directed the Child Welfare Committee of Kanyakumari to visit the child periodically till the child attains the age of five. Being a childless couple Helen and her husband for years got a newborn with the help of a nurse Girija. The baby was born out of wedlock and was abandoned in a hospital, where the couple were undergoing fertility treatment.
Subsequently, based on a tip off, the Child Welfare Committee launched a complaint to the local police and the couple was booked under Section 370 IPC for abduction and trafficking the child.
Rs 5K monthly aid for girl to look after mom
Madurai: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court directed Kanniyakumari Collector to provide a monthly assistance of Rs 5,000 to a college student who had written to the Administrative Judge seeking financial assistance for the maintenance of her ailing mother. R S Aadharsha (18) wrote that her mother Shobha slipped into coma shortly after giving birth to her. She and her mother are left in the care of her grandmother. Hence, she sought assistance.