Juvenile Act provides for adoptions: HC

Juvenile Act provides for adoptions: HC

TNN 29 July 2009, 05:33am IST
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CHENNAI: Couples intending to adopt children without being inhibited by the personal laws of their religion can do so under the provisions of the
 
 
Juvenile Justice Act, 2000, the Madras high court has ruled.

Allowing an application from a Christian couple who sought legal rights for their adopted daughter, Justice K Chandru faulted Air India, employer of the adoptive father, for refusing to recognise the adoption based on the "spurious argument" that Christian law did not recognise adoptions.

Noting that Sections 40 and 41 of the Juvenile Justice Act provided for adoption through the juvenile justice board, the court criticised Air India for failing to note the present legal position. "It shows their insensitiveness and ignorance regarding the development of law in this country," Justice Chandru said. Besides, AI's stand was opposed to the law of the land, he said.

The court directed AI to recognise that Gywneth Dhanya, aged two and a half, as the child of the applicants, RR George Christopher and his wife Kristy Chandra, and confer all service benefits available to a child of an AI staff.

"The Juvenile Justice Act for the first time provides adoption' as a means to rehabilitate and socially reintegrate a child. It empowered the state government and the JJ Board to give a child for adoption. This is the first secular law in India providing for adoption. The provisions in Sections 40 and 41 are not restricted to persons belonging to a particular religion alone," the judge said.

Even though the Christian couple in the case before the court did not utilise the JJ Act, but obtained a guardianship order from the court and followed it up with adoption as per Christian rites and customs, the judge dealt with the provisions of the juvenile justice law also to highlight the fact that regardless of personal law, there are avenues of adoption for people subscribing to any faith.

Air India's argument was that Christian law did not recognise complete adoption, as Christians had no enabling law to adopt a child legally on the lines of Hindu law on the subject. There could only be a guardian-ward relationship, it argued. However, the judge cited judicial pronouncements on the subject to show that Canon Law applicable to Christians did not prohibit it and also provided for adoption if the relevant country's laws permitted it.
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