CWC erred by giving up child for adoption without consent of father in jail: Court

Even as she admitted in her May 17 order that her court lacked jurisdiction to decide on the CWC’s decision to give away an infant without its biological father’s permission,Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau said the adoption may not stand legal scrutiny.

“I ask myself a question,can a body exercising judicial powers afford to take away from the parents (disabled on account of poverty) their child without their consent and give it to the rich (financially able) by taking the excuse of welfare of the child. If no,then I assume that the order of the Child Welfare Committee and the manner in which the child Baby ‘J’ has been pushed into adoption without the consent of the biological father,would not stand,” the judge wrote in her 42-page order.

Judge Lau then went on to order that the relevant files be moved to the court of the District & Additional Sessions Judge (West),which decided the adoption.

The case dates back to December 2007 when a 15-year-old Mukundpur girl eloped with a youth who panicked and abandoned her within hours in Okhla. The confused girl got into a bus,which took her to Srinivaspuri and then 18 years old Bhola. According to the court,she was a god-sent for Bhola,a native of Mathura,“where on account of skewed sex ratio it is difficult for young men to find a bride even for a price.”

On the advice of his relatives,Bhola tried to marry her,only for a court in Bharatpur to reject the application based on an ossification report,which indicated that she was a minor.

Bhola took her took to his family in Modinpur village where they stayed together till March 2010. The baby,referred to in the court order as ‘J’ throughout,was born in a government hospital. “During the trial,the prosecutrix had denied that she was married to the convict Bhola and according to her,he had kept her without the marriage but admitted her union with the accused Bhola who had fathered the child Baby ‘J’,” noted the court order.

After obtaining a mobile phone one day,she called her parents who took her away from Bhola. She surrendered her baby before the CWC on April 15,2010. She told the CWC that,“her parents are ready and willing to take the prosecutrix back but not the child Baby ‘J’ who,according to them,was not welcome.”

Bhola was in judicial custody by then,along with the man with whom she had eloped in December 2007. Both were charged with Section 363 of the Indian Penal Code for taking a minor away from the custody of her guardians without their consent,while the former was also charged with rape,IPC 376. Bhola was sentenced to two years’ rigorous imprisonment by Judge Lau’s court.

After his conviction,Bhola moved an application seeking the custody of his child. He knew that the mother had surrendered the infant to the CWC,but was unaware that the agency had already completed the adoption process.

Judge Lau pointed out what the CWC did was wrong: “….instead of the biological father and his family being traced and informed about his child,the child Baby ‘J’ on the basis of this unilateral surrender deed filed by the prosecutrix ‘P’ and her parents,is first sent to foster care and thereafter declared free for adoption by showing it as ‘abandoned/ destitute’.”

“Great injustice has been done with Bhola,the biological father and natural guardian of Baby ‘J’ and I shudder to think of the consequences and the storm which is arising in the life of Baby ‘J’ just because of this one irresponsible hasty decision,” noted the court,which thanked the Amicus Curiae and the counsel of the Delhi Commission for Women in the order.