Bombay High Court gives child welfare panel 48 hrs to hand over custody of child to father - India Today
The Bombay High Court has lashed out at the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) of Maharashtra for putting up a child for adoption while the child's father was seeking his custody. The high court bench directed the CWC to get its act right in 48 hours, or else the court would pass an order.
"Tell us, if the mother has abandoned the child, then the biological father has no right? We don't understand how CWC is conducting its cases. This is nothing but high handedness by the CWC. Are they above the law?" the bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Gauri Godse said on Wednesday.
The bench was hearing the petition of a man who had run away with a 16-year-old minor girl and the two had a child. The girl's family registered a case against the man under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) and he was arrested.
However, when the girl turned major, she abandoned the child and got married to someone else. The man came out on bail and sought that he be given custody of his child. However, the CWC rejected his application and put up the child for adoption.
Advocate Ashish Dubey, appearing for the petitioner, pointed out that the child was neither abandoned nor orphaned and so the CWC could not have put up the child for adoption. "Adoption will come into the picture only when both parents have abandoned the child...Why do you want to give the child for Adoption? Will the child go to the biological parent or a third party?" Justice Dere asked.
The child was eventually handed over to a foster couple by the CWC. But after the court pulled up the CWC during an earlier hearing, the child was brought back but still not handed over to the father.
The court looked through the conduct of the CWC and pointed out, "First you lose the papers and when we pull you up you find the papers and then revoke the order. The child is brought back from the custody of foster parents. Do you understand the trauma that the child will go through?"
The bench asked public prosecutor Prajakta Shinde to ask the CWC officials present in court if they thought that the order passed by them was a proper order. Shinde asked and replied, "My lord, it is not proper. Will decide and hand over the child to its father in 48 hours," said Shinde.
The bench will again hear the man's petition on Friday and will see if the CWC has complied with the direction of the court. "Either in 48 hours you pass the order, or we will pass an order," the bench said.