Supreme Court Directs States And UTs To Give Data Relating To Adoption And Foster Care To Ministry Of WCD

The Bench of Chief Justice Chandrachud, Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra directed “All the States to give all the data to the Ministry of Women and Child Development on or before April 7, 2024. The Union of India shall collate the data and present the data to the Court on April 14, 2024.”

The Court also directed the Registrar to circulate the copy of the order to all the Chief Secretaries of the States and Union Territories and further observed, “We furnish one further opportunity to the States to comply with the directions issued on 20^th November 2023 failing which, the Court may be constrained to take recourse to coercive proceedings. The Union of India shall communicate a copy of this order to all States and Union Territories, and place an updated status report up to 31^st March before this Court when further orders can be passed.”

Advocate Rohan Shah appeared on behalf of the Petitioner and submitted that at the highest the adoptions are at an average of 3800 over the last ten years and shockingly, 75% of the applications are pending currently for over two months and 45% for over a year. The Counsel also highlighted that the statutory period for the pendency of these applications is two months.

The Court remarked “There are so many children to adopt, so many parents who are willing to adopt…this is a very serious problem. There are parents who are waiting to adopt if they do not get a child for three years or four years, the situation of life changes. If you want to adopt a child at 30 years old, at 35 years you will think that your life is completely changed. You cannot possibly adopt after five years. we are passing these orders but I do not know whether they are making any difference in ground recovery”

During the hearing, it was highlighted that out of 760 districts in the country, only 390 districts have a Specialised Adoption Agency(SAA). In other words, in 370 districts no agency is functional.

ASG Aishwarya Bhati appeared on behalf of Respondent and submitted “Two data points I can give you from the status report:

First, 9127 children were identified who did not have any visits and who were in childcare institutes. So they are immediately being pulled towards foster care. Second, data on the identification of children, 11,546 children have been identified manner. So they are in the process. But the major problem is that they see children are identified but not put on the CARINGS portal. Once you just put it on the CARINGS portal then the portal starts counting. The biggest problem is that the State Level machinery and the District-level machinery is really not effective.”

The Supreme Court on November 20, 2023, had broadly classified suggestions given into five categories:

(i) The need to ensure expeditious identification of children falling in the OAS category;

(ii) The need to revamp administrative infrastructure in the States, particularly, in the SAAs and DCPUs;

(iii) The need to ensure accountability in the maintenance of the timelines laid down for completing every process in the stage of adoption;

(iv) The need to compile adequate data so as to channelize children who are placed in Foster Care (Children in need of care and protection) into the adoption process; and

(v) The need to clarify that the process of adoption under the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act (HAMA) is independent of the process which has been stipulated under the Juvenile Justice Act 2015.

The Court had also discussed these heads separately and said that all States and Union Territories are peremptorily directed to ensure that within every district falling within their jurisdiction, SAAs as required by the Juvenile Justice Act 2015, shall be set up by 31 January 2024.

The Court had also directed the Nodal Department in charge of implementing the Juvenile Justice Act 2015, whether it is the State Department in charge of Women and Child Development or, as the case may be, Social Justice and Welfare Development shall positively communicate compliance to the Director CARA and the Secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development by 31 January 2024.

Cause Title: The Temple of Healing v. Union of India (W.P. (C) No. 1003 of 2021)