There is confusion over implementation of new adoption rules that require transfer of adoption petitions from courts to District Magistrates, and parents, adoption agencies and activists are worried that this could lead to further delays in a long and arduous procedure.
Thirty four-year-old Meera Mehta* in Ahmedabad applied for adoption on Central Adoption Resource Authority’s (CARA) portal in February 2019. After a long wait, she was referred a seven-month-old girl on June 22 this year. The following month she brought home the girl under pre-adoption foster care pending a formal adoption order from the court which gives legal status to the adoption. A petition was then filed the same month before the local court to obtain an order. Since then the court has completed receiving evidence, and hearing arguments and her lawyers were confident that an order would be passed by September end. But the judge has now conveyed that he can’t proceed with the case as it has to be transferred to the District Magistrate as per the amended adoption rules.
