Registration date of adoption deed can't be cited to defeat valid Hindu adoption: Orissa HC in compassionate job case

Once a valid adoption is proved under the Hindu law, the fact of subsequent registration cannot be relied upon to deny compassionate appointment under the Railway policy to an adopted child, the Orissa High Court said [Union of India and Ors. v. K Manoj Patra & Ors.].The ruling came on a plea moved by the Union government to challenge a Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) order directing consideration of compassionate appointment of one K Manoj Patra, the adopted son of a deceased railway employee.A Division Bench of Justices Dixit Krishna Shripad and Sibo Sankar Mishra dismissed the writ petition filed by the Union of India and South Eastern Railway.The Court held that neither Section 17(1) of the Registration Act, 1908 nor the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956 makes registration of an adoption deed a sine qua non for a valid adoption.“Once the requisites of valid adoption, as discussed by Mulla’s Hindu Law supra, are met, adoption takes effect, regardless of registration,” the Court stated, noting that registration is optional though it carries a presumption of validity under Section 16 of the 1956 Act when properly executed..The Railways had rejected Patra’s claim on the ground that the adoption deed was registered on February 8, 2010, nearly two years after the employee’s death on April 2, 2008.The department relied on the Railway Board instructions to argue that only those adopted sons or daughters are eligible for compassionate appointment whose adoption has been completed and has become valid before the date of death of the employee..However, High Court found that a civil court in 2021 had recorded that Patra's adoption took place on July 4, 2003, with due performance of the giving and taking ceremony and ‘Datta Homam’, when the child was about five years old and fulfilled the statutory criteria.The CAT at Cuttack had treated this decree as ‘unimpeachable evidence in law’ and accepted the adoption as valid and complete well before the employee’s death..The High Court also drew a clear line between the completion of adoption and the subsequent documentation of that event. It observed that the act of adoption is completed by performance of the necessary rites and the deed only evidences that act.“Firstly, a valid adoption comes into existence once the rites and rituals obtaining the community are performed,” the Court observed, after referring to the requirements set out in Mulla’s Hindu Law.“The Adoption Deed is registered long after the demise of employee concerned, is not much relevant to validity of adoption. It needs no mentioning that performance of prescribed rites is constitutive of adoption and subsequent execution & registration of Deed of Adoption is only evidentiary," it added..The Court also noted the presumption under Section 16 could not apply in the case because the adoptive father was already dead when the document was presented for registration.However, it held that the defect would only affect the evidentiary value of the deed, not the underlying adoption that had been independently proved through the civil court decree.Thus, the Court affirmed the Tribunal’s direction in favour of Patra..Advocates RK Kanungo appeared for Central government and South Eastern railway.Advocates DK Mohanty, S Nayak, BN Behera and S Das appeared for Patra.[Read Judgment].Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.