Interesting case of Inter-Country Adoption of siblings from India under the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Inter-country Adoption and JJ ACT,2015

In a rare instance, an Ambala Family Court has allowed an NRI couple to adopt minor siblings — their nephew and niece.

The siblings’ paternal uncle who is of Indian origin holds a permanent visa of New Zealand while his wife is a citizen of the country. The minors — a 13-year-old boy and his 11-year-old sister — reportedly get along well with the couple who had come to India in 2019.

The separate applications were cleared by the court of Sangeeta Rai Sachdev, Additional Principal Judge (family court) on May 3 and May 5 during restricted working of Courts due to lockdown, almost one-and-a-half months after it was moved by the couple in March.

As per the orders, the judge, while approving the adoption said it was in the interest of both the children and fresh documents will be prepared by the authorities. The biological father had no objection to the adoption, the order reads.

“The man had married another woman almost after six months after the death of his first wife in 2010 and has a 10-year-old boy with his second wife. Apparently, their second mother refused to accept them and the children do not relate to her as their mother. They are being cared by their grandparents, who cannot sustain the burden of this responsibility at this age,” the order read.

Sukhvinder Singh Nara, the couple’s counsel said that the New Zealand authorities issued approval under article 17 of the Hague Adoption Convention, as per the process the proper verification through Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA)  and an in-camera consent from the children was taken by the court.

“The Ambala Family Court has declared the applicants as parents of the minor siblings and issued the adoption order under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act and Hague Convention On Protection of Children And Cooperation In Inter-country Adoption, to which India and New Zealand are signatories. The Court also referred to the provisions of Adoption (Intercountry) Act, 1997 under which the Hague Adoption Convention has force of law, the Family Court had directed the concerned authorities in India to issue birth certificate in the name of adoptive parents within five working days and to issue passport within ten working days from the date of application,” Nara said.