Parents with adopted child moving abroad have to intimate Indian diplomatic missions: New rule

The government on Monday introduced a new clause in the adoption regulations, according to which when parents with their adopted child move abroad within two years of adoption have to intimate Indian diplomatic missions of their departure and arrival at least two weeks in advance.

This information has to be given through a written communication by parents, who have to also give full contact details, according to a gazette notification of the Women and Child Development Ministry.

The notification said it shall be the responsibility of the Indian Mission of the country to which the child has moved to perform all the assigned duties under the Adoption Regulations, 2017, in respect to the adopted child.

Under the Adoption (First Amendment) Regulations, 2021, it said that ‘the amendment has been notified in accordance with the relevant sections of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (2 of 2016)’.

Earlier, there was no such provision of such intimation under the regulations.

‘In the Adoption Regulations, 2017, in regulation 40, after sub-regulation (7), the following sub-regulation (for intimation) shall be inserted…,’ the notification said.

The new sub-regulation 7A states that ‘where the adoptive parents move with the child to some other country within two years of adoption, the concerned Indian Diplomatic Missions in the country of departure and arrival, shall be intimated at least two weeks in advance through a written communication by the adoptive parents with their full contact details at the new place and thereafter, it shall be the responsibility of the Indian Mission of the country to which the child has moved, to perform all the assigned duties under the Adoption Regulations, 2017 in respect of the adopted child’.

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