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Synopsis

While dealing with an adoption case of an unborn child, Justice M.S. Ramachandra Rao of the Punjab and Haryana Court has held that the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956 does not envisage an agreement to adopt an unborn child.

This observation was made by a single judge bench while hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by the natural mother of a newborn baby boy seeking to get him released from the custody of a couple who had earlier requested the petitioner to give the child in adoption even before he was born.

After the birth of the child, he was taken away by the couple, who had entered into an agreement with the petitioner and her husband allegedly by use of force.

Petitioner further contended that she was the natural mother and the natural guardian of the child and that there was ‘no valid adoption’ as per the provisions of the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956.

It was further alleged that there was ‘no registered document’ concerning the adoption as per Section 16 of the Act.

Conclusively, Court held that the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956 does not allow an agreement to adopt a child, who is not yet born. Thus, the adoptive couple could not claim to be in lawful custody of the minor child in question.

Court thus directed the adoptive couple to hand over the custody of the baby boy to the petitioner.

High Court also clarified that the adoptive couple could take steps to enforce the agreement, which they have entered into, in an appropriate court of law against the petitioner and her husband for claiming the adoption of the baby boy.

Case Title: Pooja Rani v. State of Punjab and others