Supreme Court Gives Final Deadline To States/ UTs To Appoint Specialised Adoption Agencies In Each District By August 30

The Supreme Court on Tuesday (July 9) expressed serious concerns over the non-compliance of several states in appointing Specialised Adoption Agencies (SAAs) within every district by January 31 2024. The Court has directed the Chief Secretaries of the States and UTs to strictly comply with the earlier order by August 30, 2024 failing which contempt proceedings may be initiated against them. 

The bench of CJI DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra were hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking the simplification of adoption procedures in the country, filed by "The Temple of Healing," a charitable trust.

The Court took note of the Ministry of Women & Child Development's compliance report which revealed that out of 760 districts in the country, only 390 districts have functional SAAs. This leaves 370 districts without such agencies, hindering the adoption process in those areas.

The bench recorded that states like Goa, Chandigarh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, and Kerala have shown full compliance, having established SAAs in all their districts. In contrast, states such as Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Punjab, Nagaland, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand have less than half of their districts with operational SAAs. Particularly in Uttar Pradesh, 61 out of 75 districts lack functioning SAAs. 

The Court in its order stressed that even after the lapse of 5 months of its previous order in March 2024 to duly appoint SAAs in line with its Order dated November 20, 2023, there has been no complete compliance. As per the Order of November 2023 Court directed that all States and UTs shall establish SAAs by January 31, 2024.

" In the previous order (March 15) we had while recording a prima-facie breach in complying with the earlier directions, granted a further opportunity to the states failing which it was stated that this Court would be constrained to take recourse to proceedings." 

Taking a stern view of the matter, the Court has now directed all States and UTs to file compliance affidavits by August 30, 2024. Those failing to meet the compliance requirements must appear personally before the court on September 2, 2024, to explain why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against them. This directive, however, exempts states that have achieved full compliance.

"We are compelled to now take coercive proceedings against the states and UT since despite repeated opportunities SAAs have not been set up in all the districts. We accordingly directed that the Chief Secretaries of all the States and UTs shall file compliance affidavits on or before 30 Aug 2024 failing which they shall remain personally present before this court on 2 Septemeber  2024, to explain why they should not be proceeded against under contempt jurisdiction. This shall not apply to states which have achieved full compliance." 

Increased Adoptions Nationwide; Gap Between Registrations & Actual Adoptions Yet To Be Bridged

The Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Aishwarya Bhati appearing for the Union apprised the court that despite the challenges, there has been significant progress in adoptions nationwide. In the current year, 40,028 children were adopted through the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), marking the highest number since 2017. However, there remains a substantial gap between the number of registrations for adoption, which stands at 13,000 for the year, and the actual adoptions completed. 

Considering the substance in the issue of bridging the gap between increased registrations and actual adoptions, the CJI in his order noted that there is a necessary need to upgrade the institutional infrastructure 

"During FY 2023-24 13467 registrations took place. while the no of registration has been steadily on the rise there has been serious gap on the registration and actual adoption. To bridge this gap it is necessary that the infrastructure which has been envisaged in the law should be duly upgraded."

Referring to Schedule 14 of the 2022 CARA Adoption Regulations, the Court further directed all the States and UTs to file affidavits explaining whether the timelines stipulated in the regulations for facilitating the process of adoptions are duly compiled with or not. They shall also file data on the actual time taken for completing the process, reasons should also be given if the timelines stipulated are not complied with. 

The petitioner in person also sought guidelines for adoption procedure under Hindu Adoptions and Manintenance Act, 1956 (HAMA). 

However the CJI noted that since the relevant regulations are already laid down under the HAMA Statute , it would not be within the court's domain to interfere with the specifications within the statute. 

"It would be difficult for the Court lay down guidelines, becuase the conditions for a valid adoption are laid down. Once the Statute is very clear it would not be appropriate for the Court to prescribe guidelines." 

Background 

On November 20, 2023 the Top Court directed the Secretary in charge of nodal departments responsible for the implementation of the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act in all States to carry out bi-monthly identification drives to identify children who were orphaned, abandoned, or surrendered so that such children could enter the loop of adoption in India. It was stated that the first of these identification drives should be carried out on December 7, 2023. 

Additionally, the court also directed all States and Union Territories (UTs) to ensure the establishment of Specialised Adoption Agencies (SAAs) within every district by January 31 2024. The bench directed the nodal department in charge of implementing the JJ Act to positively communicate compliance of the court's order to the Director or CARA and the Secretary of Ministry of Women and Child Development by January 31, 2024 as well. 

In an earlier hearing in the matter, the Supreme Court had raised serious concerns over the delays in the adoption process and the potential impact on both aspiring parents and children in need of loving homes.

Case Details : Case Title: The Temple of Healing v. Union of India| WP(C) 1003/2021

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