New Delhi, Sep 17 The Supreme Court has set aside a Telangana High Court order on the custody of a minor and directed the Child Welfare Committee at Hyderabad to hand over the child to the two persons claiming to be his adoptive parents.
A bench of justices MM Sundresh and Prasanna B Varale passed the order while allowing an appeal filed by Mohammed Akbar and others against the Telangana High Court's June 12, 2025 order.
"Taking note of the aforesaid facts, we are inclined to set aside the impugned order dated June 12, 2025 passed by the High Court of Telangana in writ petition... Consequently, the concerned respondent No.2- Child Welfare Committee, Shishu Griha, Hyderabad, is directed to hand over the custody of child to appellant Nos.1 and 2 (Mohammed Akbar and his spouse)," the bench said in its order passed on Thursday.
The Telangana government was represented by lawyer Sravan Kumar.
The case arose after the child was taken into the custody of the Child Welfare Committee on suspicion that he was sold by his biological mother to the first two appellants.
The top court noted that the fact that the third appellant was the biological mother of the child was undisputed.
It also observed that the fact that the child was given in adoption by his biological mother because of her inability to take care of him due to financial constraints would "ipso facto" not lead to the presumption that the child was sold.
The bench said that the child had been taken into the care of the first two appellants, who were described in the order as his adoptive parents, and that it was not a case where the child had not been properly cared for by them.
The Telangana High Court had earlier declined to treat the child's custody with the Child Welfare Committee as illegal detention.
It had also observed that the adoption deed did not comply with the framework under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, and that the adoption had not taken place through the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA).
While directing handing over the custody of the child to adoptive parents, the bench made it clear that its order did not address or affect the investigations concerning allegations of trafficking involving other children.
"We make it clear that we are not touching upon the issues pertaining the pending investigation(s) qua other children who are alleged to have been trafficked," the bench said.
