Supreme Court Issues Notice In PIL Seeking Removal Of Anomalies To Ensure Uniform Adoption And Guardianship Guidelines

A three-Judge Bench of CJI SA Bobde, Justice AS Bopanna and Justice Ramasubramanian issued the direction while hearing a public interest plea filed seeking directions to the Centre to remove anomalies in the grounds of 'adoption and guardianship' and make them uniform for all citizens without any discrimination

The plea stated that no discrimination should be done on the grounds of religion, race, cast, sex or place of birth in cases of adoption and guardianship, in the spirit of Articles 14, 15, 21, 44 of the Indian Constitution and several international conventions. According to the petitioner, the top Court being the custodian of the Constitutional and protector of the fundamental rights, should declare that the discriminatory grounds of 'adoption and guardianship' are violative of Articles 14, 15, 21 of the Constitution.

The plea also urged the Court to issue directions to the Law Commission of India to prepare report on Uniform Grounds of Adoption & Guardianship in spirit of Articles 14, 15, 21, 44 within 3 months, while considering the international conventions and the best practices of laws of adoption & guardianship.

Upadhyay, in his plea has stated that even though India is a sovereign, socialist secular, democratic republic and the Constitution has well-expressed provisions ensuring the citizens Equality, Liberty and Justice, the State has failed to provide uniform grounds of adoption and guardianship for all citizens. In consideration of the fact that adoption and guardianship are crucial elements in a person's life, complex and cumbersome procedures of adoption and guardianship which are neither gender nor religion neutral cause great injury to the public.

"Custody, guardianship, adoption, maintenance, minimum marriage age, grounds of divorce, succession and inheritance, are the secular activities. Hence it is duty of the State to ensure that every citizen including third gender have uniform adoption & guardianship right, uniform minimum age of marriage, uniform grounds of divorce, uniform maintenance & alimony, uniform succession & inheritance in spirit of Articles 14, 15, 21, 44 & International Conventions. " - the plea states.

The plea while challenging the blatant ongoing discrimination in adoption and guardianship rights, also stated that uniformity is essential to secure fraternity, equality and dignity of a child and the State has failed to take steps in this regard till date.

According to the petitioner, the current practice of adoption is discriminatory as while Hindus have a codified law of adoption, Muslims, Christians, and Parsis don't . While an Adopted child has right to inherit property under the Hindu law and become a legal heir, the same is not true for an adopted child under the Muslim, Christian and Parsi law.

Through his plea, Upadhyay submitted that the Personal laws governing marriage and secular activities like maintenance guardianship, adoption, succession & inheritance, go against the spirit of Articles of the Constitution. Adoption-Guardianship are crucial and pivotal as they are directly related to and affect the mental health and psychological well being of the children. Therefore, Uniform Adoption & Guardianship laws will strengthen the constitutional spirit which is regarded as heart and soul of the Constitution.