HC criticises lower courts for delaying adoption cases

HC criticises lower courts for delaying adoption cases
A Subramani, TNN 22 November 2009, 03:32am IST

CHENNAI: Slamming subordinate courts for inordinate delay in disposing of adoption and guardianship cases, the Madras high court has said that
 
 
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they must clear such cases with the utmost sensitivity and diligence.

As on date more than 970 cases, filed under the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act and the Guardians and Wards Act, are pending before various courts in Tamil Nadu. Many of them are pending since 2006.

Delivering the order in a guardianship case on Friday, Justice K Chandru said that the Supreme Court had laid down a timeframe of two months to conclude such cases. Scores of cases were pending for more than three years in some courts in the state. “It is a disquieting factor to see that the current pendency of cases in some districts show an alarming picture and slackness in dealing with such matters, despite the binding law laid down by the Supreme Court,” he said.
Such defiance shown by district courts should not be tolerated by the HC, which should take a serious view of the matter, Justice Chandru said.

The case relates to a petition filed by N John in 1999, seeking to be appointed guardian of his cousin’s two minor children. The parents of the children had died and John, a retired government employee, and his wife had been taking care of them, the petition said.