SC asks Centre, states to frame adoption rules

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre and states to frame guidelines under the new law to ensure the welfare of children in case of their intra-country or inter-country adoption.

“The interest of children, whether it is intra-country or inter-country adoption, has to be protected. The process of adoption has to be transparent. It should ensure the welfare of a child,” a three-judge Bench, headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur said.

The Bench refused to order a CBI probe into the alleged ongoing adoption racket in the country and asked NGO Advait Foundation, which had filed the PIL in 2012, to come up with “specific allegations in specific cases”. “Generally, we will give you liberty to come to court or to the CBI with specific allegations. You (NGO) cannot seek CBI investigation in all cases,” it said.

The court, then, disposed of the PIL, in which directions were sought for the Centre to ensure the welfare of children in adoptions. It said that the government has come up with the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, which came into effect from January 15 this year, on the issue.

It considered the responses of Additional Solicitor Generals Tushar Mehta and Pinky Anand that the Centre, in pursuance of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989, has come up with the new juvenile law, which takes care of most of the grievances raised in the petition.

The Bench rejected the submission that the PIL be kept pending further to ensure compliance of the legal provisions and asked the Centre and all states to frame the model rules, regulations and guidelines under the new law to ensure that the interest of children is safeguarded in adoptions.

The Bench had in 2012 issued a notice to the Centre on the PIL, seeking various reliefs, including a direction to the government to ban inter-country adoption in the absence of any law regulating it.