‘Adoption body is insensitive’

The Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) has two weeks to decide on pending proposals from foreign nationals keen on adopting children with special needs.

The Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) has two weeks to decide on pending proposals from foreign nationals keen on adopting children with special needs.

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The Bombay high court on Tuesday gave the CARA, a Union government undertaking, the deadline while pulling it up for its indifferent attitude towards pending adoption proposals from foreign nationals after it found out that one of the applicants had decided to drop his proposal to adopt a HIV positive child because of the delay in processing his plea.

“See what your insensitivity can do,” the division bench comprising chief justice Mohit Shah and justice SJ Vazifdar said to the counsel for the CARA. “This approach will seriously affect the children and adoptive parents.”

Seven foreign nationals, keen on adopting HIV positive children or those suffering from Hepatitis-B or skin infections, moved the high court after the CARA declined to grant them a no-objection certificate (NOC) for adopting children from Pune-based adoption agency Preet Mandir.

Preet Mandir was at the centre of a controversy after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered an offence alleging that the agency had illegally got hold of children solely for inter-country adoptions, extortion of money in excess of permitted donations and misappropriation of trust funds.

The foreign nationals’ petition contended that they were denied NOCs despite their acceptance letters and clearances from the local Adoption Coordination Agency certifying that the children were legally free for adoption.

The judges were irked to find that the CARA had not bothered to process the applications of the foreign nationals seeking no objection certificates for adopting the children despite their earlier orders. Instead, the CARA sought additional time until February 28 to process applications, some of which were filed before May 2010.

The court has directed the CARA to review its earlier order and take a fresh decision on the applications filed by the adoptive parents within two weeks. The court will hear the matter again on February 28.