An outer view of Bombay High Court in Mumbai. File
| Photo Credit: Vivek Bendre
The Aurangabad Bench of the Bombay High Court recently quashed a District Judge’s order of rejecting a single working woman’s plea for adopting a child only on the basis of, “being a working lady, as she will not give personal attention to the child”. The high court held, “The reason recorded by the judge is unfounded, illegal, perverse, unjust, and unacceptable.”
A Single Bench of Justice Gauri Godse was hearing a revision application by Shabnamjahan Ansari, challenging an order passed by the District Judge at Bhusawal on March 8, 2022, rejecting her application for adopting her sister’s child.
Ms. Ansari, a prospective adoptive parent, had registered in the child adoption centre and after following the necessary procedure, a detailed report was prepared by the District Child Protection Unit. All the necessary verification regarding the status and health of the prospective parent and the child as well as the financial condition of the parties, was done.
However, the Bhusawal District Judge had rejected the application on the ground that the prospective parent was a single lady and a divorcee. The Judge also observed that Ms. Ansari being a working lady, would not be able to give personal attention to her ward; per contra the biological parents would be in a better condition to take care of the child.
The court remarked, “The reason given by the Competent Court is not only contrary to the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care And Protection of Children) Act, but also to the recommendation made by Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA). The reason given by the court is unfounded and baseless. The court has erroneously rejected the application by doing guesswork. The comparison done by the court between the biological mother being a housewife and the prospective adoptive mother (single parent) being a working lady reflects a mindset of the medieval conservative concepts of a family.”
The order read, “When JJ Act recognises a single parent to be eligible for being an adoptive parent, the approach of the court defeats the very object of the Statute. Generally, a single parent is bound to be a working person, maybe with some rare exceptions. Thus, by no stretch of the imagination, a single parent can be held to be ineligible to be an adoptive parent on the ground that he/she is a working person”, and quashed the lower court’s order.
