Foreign adoption not illegal, says high court

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday held that there was nothing illegal in the adoption process where two minor girls aged 15 and 10 were sent to Spain for rehabilitation.

The division bench of Justice Bilal Nazki and Justice A. R. Joshi on Wednesday rejected the petition filed by a 65-year-old vegetable vendor who had alleged that her grand daughters were given for adoption without her consent.

Observing that no criminal offence was disclosed in Kisabai Lokhande’s complaint, the high court rejected her petition stating that she has the liberty to approach the authority if she was aggrieved by the adoption.

In her petition, Lokhande had not challenged the adoption. She had sought a probe against the Child Welfare Committee, the Central Adoption Resource Centre, a Spanish NGO and Preet Mandir, a Pune-based private adoption agency, for illegally declaring the two girls “destitute” and executing the inter-country adoption without their guardian’s consent.

Raising doubt over the motive behind filing of the petition five years after adoption, the court said there seemed to be ulterior motive. One of the girls was allegedly molested while she was staying with Lokhande after their mother went missing and father passed away. Lokhande, who was earning Rs 50 per day, had said she could not look after the girls. They were then sent to Preet Mandir and given for adoption after an no-objection from Lokhande.

Based on a report by the foreign agency, the court said, “The children are happy and bonded with their adoptive parents.”