Kolkata, Sep 18 The Calcutta High Court has directed the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) to hand over a three-year-old child to the adoptive parents, observing that the minor was neither "orphan" nor "abandoned" and did not fall under the category of "children in need of care and protection".
Justice Krishna Rao, in a judgment passed on September 17, held that the CWC's decision to take custody of the child from the petitioners was not in accordance with the law.
The court observed that as the child is neither "orphan" nor "abandoned" and does not fall in the category of "children in need of care and protection" as per provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, "the action of the Child Welfare Committee taking the custody of the child from the petitioners is not is accordance with the law."
Justice Rao directed that as a cautionary step and for the child's best interest, the Member Secretary of the District Legal Services Committee, South 24 Parganas, will seek quarterly reports on the child's welfare and progress starting from December.
The court also granted the Member Secretary liberty to depute a child welfare expert to inspect the house of the petitioners where the kid resides.
Justice Rao, who held that the adoption procedure was not in accordance with the law, directed the petitioners to take necessary steps before the appropriate court for a declaration that they are the child's adoptive parents.
The court noted that there is no dispute that the biological parents gave the child in adoption to the petitioners, but proper procedure was not followed.
The biological parents of the minor, unable to take care of the child, voluntarily handed over the child to the petitioners on the very same day of birth on April 3, 2023, and a deed of adoption was executed between the biological parents and the petitioners.
The adoptive parents, intending to get their child admitted to school, approached the hospital authorities, where the infant was born, to obtain a birth certificate.
The hospital asked the petitioners to approach the CWC for the child's adoption and told them that the petitioners would receive the child's birth certificate only after that.
The petitioners approached the CWC on February 18, 2026, and narrated the entire incident.
The CWC took the child into its custody from the petitioners, and since then the kid has remained in the committee's custody, following which the petitioners moved the high court.
