Bombay High Court raps CWC for "illegally" taking custody of child from adoptive parents

A local Child Welfare Committee (CWC) constituted under the Juvenile Justice Act (JJ Act) has no jurisdiction to seize an adopted child from her adoptive parents since the child is neither an ‘orphan’ nor ‘abandoned’ nor a ‘child in need of care and protection’ within the meaning of Section 2(14) of the JJ Act, the Bombay High Court recently ruled [ABC & Anr v. CWC & Ors.].

A division bench of Justices Urmila Joshi‑Phalke and Nivedita Mehta held that the CWC itself does not get any power to deal with the child who is neither ‘abandoned’ nor ‘orphan’. 

The Nagpur Bench of the Court made the observations while ordering immediate restoration of a minor girl to her adoptive parents,

“The action on the part of the CWC obtaining the custody of the child is illegal as the CWC is not competent to exercise the jurisdiction over the said child and thereby the action of the CWC is wrong and illegal,” the Court held.

The petition was filed by the couple from a village in Chandrapur district in Maharashtra who adopted a six-day old child from her biological parents who already had three children and agreed to give her in adoption. 

The couple executed a notarised deed under the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956 (HMA). The child lived with them since 2020 and was admitted to a school in 2024–25, with all documents in her adoptive name.

The dispute arose when an NGO worker inspected the couple’s home in May followed by CWC declaring the adoption as illegal. The CWC took custody of the child but she was also handed back to the adoptive parents after finding them ‘fit persons’. 

On June 5, when the couple again appeared before the CWC, the child was taken away while they were kept busy in communicating with each other. The committee then refused to allow them to meet the child, prompting the present habeas corpus petition. 

The Court acknowledged that the adoption deed was defective in law Since ‘merely notarizing it does not amount to valid adoption’ under HMA and that Central Adoption Resource Authority's procedures under the JJ Act had not been followed.

However, it underlined that the biological parents who were present in court had accepted that they gave the child up for adoption with consent.

“The child before us cannot be termed as ‘orphan’ or ‘abandoned’ and does not fall in the category of ‘children in need of care and protection’ as defined under Section 2(14) of the Juvenile Justice Act of 2015,” the Court held.

Thus, it concluded that the custody handed over to the CWC was not justified.

Hence, the Court quashed CWC’s orders of May 27 and June 5 and directed that the girl be handed back to her adoptive parents.

Advocate Nihalsing B Rathod appeared for the parents.

Additional public prosecutor Amit Chutke appeared for CWC.

[Read order]