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The Delhi High Court has directed the Ministry of Women and Child Development to file a report as to the manner and mode of creating a permanent mechanism to deal with direct and indirect inter-country adoptions under the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956 ('HAMA') and place the said report before the court within a period of two months.

The order was passed by the single judge bench of Justice Pratibha M Singh while hearing a batch of petitions raising issues relating to international adoption of Indian children. 

The three cases before the Court were that the children and their biological parents are in India but the adoptive parents are mostly settled abroad. The adoptions have been carried out under the provisions of the HAMA, however, there are challenges being faced in the movement of the child abroad, including in obtaining passports and visas for the adopted children.

The court observed that as of now, there exists no provision under the Act dealing with inter-country adoptions. It was further observed that the procedure under HAMA regulates both domestic and inter-country adoptions, however there is a need to have a re-look at the statute post the ratification of the Hague Convention. 

The court said that Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), which is an agency set up under the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, per se would not have jurisdiction in respect of adoptions under HAMA as the Juvenile Justice Act does not apply in respect of HAMA adoptions. 

“However, currently, CARA is the only agency dealing with inter-country adoptions. Thus, apart from any amendments in the law which may be required, there is also a need to create a specialized agency for inter-country adoptions under HAMA or to vest the said jurisdiction with CARA itself”, the Court observed.

The court also noted that there are several errors on the website of CARA in respect of HAMA adoptions. In this regard a direction has been made to CARA to carry out corrections in its website and place a report before the court within eight weeks.

CARA has also been directed to frame guidelines for the processing of No Objection Certificates (NOCs) for inter-country adoptions under HAMA and make available forms for this purpose, on the portal. 

Case Title: Batch of Petitions