 "Allahabad HC allows woman with 4 biological children to adopt minor girl")
The Allahabad High Court recently granted permission for a woman who is the mother of four biological children to adopt a girl child. The court acknowledged that such adoptions are restricted by law, but it emphasised that the child recognised the woman as her mother and that there was a reciprocal bond of love. As a result, the court ruled in favour of the child's best interests, allowing the woman to legally adopt her.
The bench of Justices Saumitra Dayal Singh and Manjive Shukla said, "While the law could not prevent the petitioner from giving birth to another child, it has been relied to deprive the petitioner from bringing up another child as her own. To take away X [the minor child] from the petitioner is the easiest part of the law, but it is not possible for the law to find another set of parents X may identify as its own. Therefore, the law must yield to justice…"
Furthermore, the bench emphasised that exposing the young girl to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) proceedings, which revealed her abandonment and foster care situation, was an unfortunate and unnecessary experience that should have been avoided for the child's emotional well-being until she matured enough to deal with any psychological trauma that might arise. "Ignorance would have been bliss for X," the bench declared.
The court passed the order in the writ petition moved by the woman assailing an order passed by the CWC Fatehgarh, Farrukhabad. The committee had denied the petitioner's application for the grant of a minor's foster care.
The case
In 2014, a person of the third gender handed over the infant, who was only a few days old, to the woman. The woman cared for the child until she was abducted in October 2021 by the same person.
After the woman filed a complaint with the CWC, the child was rescued and returned to her custody. However, a year later, the committee transferred the child to a government shelter. Later, two people claimed the child as theirs, prompting a DNA test that eventually revealed their biological parentage. Subsequently, when the woman applied for foster care for her child, the committee declined her application.
Court's judgement
Acknowledging the woman's sincere and genuine desire to be with the child, the Allahabad High Court stated that the woman had been visiting the child in the government shelter and had made complaints that she was not being given enough time to spend with the girl and was not allowed to hold the child in her arms.
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The court also highlighted that the counselling report of the child was self-speaking of the care offered by the petitioner to her till before her abduction and also as to the purity of the bond that exists between the petitioner and the girl.
"Clearly, it shows that X had grown up in the knowledge that the petitioner was her mother. In the absence of any adverse circumstance or report, that fact may have been enough to allow for foster care to have been allowed in favour of the petitioner," it said.
The high court also ruled that the District Probation Officer's order, which declared the lady legally unfit to adopt the child, was mechanical and wholly vague. As a result, the court granted the woman's application for adoption of the child and asked that the CWC provide the petitioner custody of the girl child.
The court also directed the District Probation Officer to submit periodic reports with respect to the development of the girl, initially on a monthly basis for the first six months and thereafter, as and when required by law.