The Delhi High Court was today told that the Centre needs to frame guidelines concerning inter-country adoptions where biological parents are directly giving their child for adoption.
A bench of justices B D Ahmed and Siddharth Mridul was told that "the Centre has stopped halfway in framing adoption guidelines only for orphaned, abandoned and surrendered children through state agencies while there are no guidelines for direct adoption where parents give their children in adoption directly to another couple."
Senior advocate Maninder Acharaya, appointed amicus by the court, submitted before the bench that "Somebody did not think about it holistically. There is no state intervention or state agency for direct adoption while adoptions of orphaned or surrendered kids are governed by laws relating to juveniles and by Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA)."
She also submitted that in absence of any guidelines, Hague Convention applies, to which India is a signatory.
"Hague convention makes state intervention mandatory for any kind of adoption. We (India) have no guidelines for direct adoption by biological parents. There is a complete void. Centre has only cared to deal with adoption of orphaned, abandoned and surrendered child through state agencies.
"Since Parliament has not made any act or law concerning the subject borrowing from the Hague Convention, courts can apply the Convention," she submitted.
The court is hearing two petitions concerning direct inter-country adoption.
In one of the petitions, a woman doctor residing in the US had adopted a child from a couple in Uttar Pradesh and got the adoption deed registered. However, when she applied for the passport of the child, she was told that it could be issued only after she obtains a no objection certificate from CARA.
When she approached CARA, her request was refused without citing any reasons.
The second petition deals with the adoption of a child of a single mother by a couple staying in the US.
