“We Have Not Stayed Adoptions”: Bombay High Court Clarifies, Court To Continue Hearing Matters

A division bench of Justice GS Patel and Neela Gokhale made the clarification in view of news reports that adoptions had come to a standstill following its order in January 2023.

“We must, however, clarify we have not stayed adoptions. They will continue as they were happening before the amendment to the JJ Act. There is no question of any ongoing matters being transferred to the district magistrate. Civil courts dealing with adoptions must continue to do so till final disposal of this matter on July 7.”

After an intervenor pointed out that several matters had already been transferred to the district magistrate, the HC said that all those papers should be transferred back to the civil court.  

In January, the Bombay High Court had granted an interim stay on transfer of pending adoption matters from a Court to the District Magistrates and directed courts to continue adjudicating such cases.

The court passed this order in a plea challenging the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Act 2021 to the extent that the word ‘Court’ was replaced with ‘District Magistrates’.

According to the petitioners, the amendment means that an exclusive jurisdiction has been given to the District Magistrates over all adoptions, including foreign adoptions.

“While considering interim relief, we must bear in mind the primary objective which is the interest of the children and infants who are to be adopted whether these are domestic or foreign adoptions. The concerns of the adoptive parents are also involved," the court said.

The court added that if the petition succeeds, any orders passed by the District Magistrates will immediately become vulnerable.

The High Court said that till the petition in finally decided, civil courts could handle adoption matters.

"The safer and more prudent course of action would be to allow all matters to be placed before the learned Single Judge of this Court who is assigned those matters. Those orders may be continued to be passed until the challenge is finally decided," the court had said.

This practice has continued for a long time, and nothing indicates it shouldn’t be continued for about 4 weeks till the final hearing of the petition, the court said further. No prejudice will be caused to any party if the existing system continues, it added.

"We have yet to see the justification for the amendment. The matter has been pending since October 2022. We are now told that there should be no stay on the implementation of the amendment and that the Government will file its reply. We do not think that the matters require to go through multiple cycles of the same arguments," the court said.

Case no. – Writ Petition No. 32065 of 2022

Case Title – Nisha Pradeep Pandya alias Nisha Amit Gor & Anr. v. Union of India & Ors

Click Here To Read/Download Judgment