MUMBAI: The Bombay high court has declared a septuagenarian Christian couple from the city as the adoptive parents of a 34-year-old married woman who was in their foster care and guardianship since July 1992.
The couple had approached the high court recently, claiming that they did not apply to formally adopt their foster daughter earlier as they were under a bona fide belief that the law did not allow Christians to adopt. Later, they came across two court judgments holding that the law does not prohibit anyone from adopting, their petition said.
The couple, who have no children of their own, informed the court that a shelter home in the city had allowed them to become the child’s foster parents in 1992, when she was just a year old. They added that a July 1992 court order that allowed them to act as the child’s legal guardians stated that the couple would “adopt the girl if any law was enacted permitting Christians to adopt, as it was widely believed that Christianity did not permit adoption.”
The couple’s counsel, advocate Nitin Raut, pointed out that the girl had stayed with them as a part of their family and had bonded well with them as if she were their own daughter. He added that the foster child, now 34, got married in January 2023 and is living with her husband in Dubai.
Raut told the court that the couple was completely unaware of a 2000 high court order declaring that in the absence of legislation setting out who can adopt, persons declared as guardians under the Guardians and Wards Act can apply for adoption.
The lawyer submitted that even though the woman is now grown up and married, granting an adoption order would confer social respectability as the petitioner couple’s daughter and “complete” their family. He added that even though the petitioners’ guardianship ended after their foster child became an adult, they still share a bond with her as their daughter.
A single-judge bench of justice Abhay Ahuja on March 27 allowed the plea after interacting with the petitioners and the 34-year-old woman, noticing that there appeared to be a “strong bond” between them. The judge agreed that granting an adoption order would complete their family, and they could follow the customary traditions and cultural exchanges with her and their son-in-law.
“The marital status of the daughter does not change or alter her relationship or bond with her parents and should not come in the way of granting an order of adoption,” justice Ahuja said while declaring the petitioners as the adoptive parents of the 34-year-old woman. The court directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to issue a fresh birth certificate for the woman, naming the petitioners as her parents.
