As many as 25 children put up for inter-country adoption in the past two months by city-based adoption centre Preet Mandir are facing an uncertain future. The Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) had, in a letter dated March 11, told the adoption centre to discontinue its inter-country adoption proceedings from February 15.

However, Preet Mandir claims it received the letter only by April and the papers of the 25 children had been moved by then. The CARA, an autonomous body under the Ministry of Women and Child Development, had also asked Preet Mandir not to seek any foreign placement for its children till it gets a clean chit from the CBI or the Bombay High Court.

Preet Mandir had filed 16 petitions of in-country adoptions and 25 inter-country adoptions during these months. “These 25 kids have been cleared for foreign adoption but they may not finally get to be adopted as per this notification. All these children will face problems,” said Suhas Deshpande, liaisoning officer, Preet Mandir.

The two centres of Preet Mandir — at Camp and Kalyani Nagar in the city — have 172 children.

The letter issued by CARA deputy director Dr Jagannath Pati says, “Preet Mandir is hereby directed not to send any referral of any foreign agency/Central authority till it is given a clean chit by the CBI or the High Court of judicature at Bombay or the situation is reviewed by CARA. This, however, will not affect any pipeline cases where CARA has already issued NOCs prior to February 15 and in all such cases, Preet Mandir is competent to file petitions in the competent court.”

A senior officer from CARA said they had sent copies of the letter to Preet Mandir, the secretary and commissioner of the Women and Child Development Department, Maharashtra, and the Adoption Coordinating Agency, Pune. “We want a status quo to be maintained till the investigations are completed. However, the state government has not placed any restrictions on Preet Mandir for domestic adoptions.”

Deshpande said, “We would not have put forth the petitions for inter-country adoptions if we had got the letter on time. But we received the letter only this month. We have replied to the notice, requesting them to consider these cases ‘as those in pipeline’. However, we are yet to get any reply.”

Women and Child Development Department commissioner Bajirao Jadhav said it was the responsibility of the Adoption Council of India to intervene. A member of the Indian Council for Social Welfare, the scrutiny board for adoptions in Pune, said they were yet to get a copy of the report. “If the CARA has issued the notification, the adoption centre has to abide by it.”

The adoption centre had faced investigations about alleged malpractices earlier also, and it had been cleared by investigating agencies a couple of times. The Bombay High Court had, in an order on November 20 last year, asked the CBI to conduct preliminary inquiry on points not considered earlier and this report has to be submitted next month.