The Supreme Court has directed all the state governments and Union Territories to prevent any NGO from collecting funds in the names of the children affected during the Covid-19 pandemic by disclosing their identity and inviting interested persons to adopt them.
"Stringent action shall be taken by the State Governments/Union Territories against agencies/individuals who are responsible for indulging in this illegal activity," a bench of Justice L Nageswara Rao and Aniruddha Bose said.
The Court pointed out an invitation for the adoption of orphans was contrary to law as such a process cannot be permitted without the involvement of the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA).
"No adoption of affected children should be permitted contrary to the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015," the bench said.
The court passed its direction after Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj and advocate Shobha Gupta, appearing for the Centre and NGO 'We the Women of India' respectively pointed towards illegal adoptions and collections of money some NGOs in name of children orphaned during the pandemic.
Gupta contended that there were several advertisements in the public domain inviting people to adopt orphans. Such posts have been found on social media as well. She submitted that most of them were fake.
"We share the concern of the Additional Solicitor General and Gupta about the illegal adoption of affected children," the court said, issuing directions to the state governments to stop it.