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Friday, Oct 28, 2005

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Court cautions States on inter-country adoption

Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has cautioned the States to ensure that children, particularly from orphanages, given in adoption to foreign parents, are not used for child trafficking.

"It should be ensured that behind the mask of social service the evil design of child trafficking is not lurking", the court said.

A Bench of Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice Arun Kumar said: "It is the duty of the State to ensure a safe roof over an abandoned child. Keeping in view the welfare of the child all possible efforts should be made by the State governments to explore the possibility of adoption under the supervision of a designated agency."

The Bench, however, said that keeping in view the guidelines already framed by the apex court earlier in the case of Lakshmi Kant Pandey, adoption by foreign parents might be permitted by the States in appropriate cases.

The Bench while upholding a judgment of the Andhra Pradesh High Court declining permission for inter-country adoption of a five-year girl child from St. Theresa's Tender Loving Care Home, observed: "A child is a precious gift and merely because he or she for various reasons is abandoned by the parents that cannot be a reason for further neglect by the society."

The Bench reiterated that the seven-point guidelines given in Pandey's case should be strictly followed while giving children in adoption.

Every effort must be made first to see if the child could be rehabilitated by adoption within the country by Indian parents; if that was not possible then only adoption by foreign parents should be permitted.

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