Bill in LS to speed up adoption process

The government on Monday introduced in the Lok Sabha a bill to amend the Juvenile Justice Act (Care and Prevention of Children) Act 2015 in order to avert the delay in the procedure for adoption of orphaned, abandoned and surrendered children.

Minister of Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi introduced the bill in the Lok Sabha.

The bill seeks to empower the district magistrates to issue orders for adoption in order to avert inordinate delay by the courts in doing the same.

The Chapter VIII of the Juvenile Justice Act deals with adoption. The sub-section 1 of Section 56 of the Juvenile Justice Act provides that adoption shall be resorted to for ensuring a right to the family for the orphan, abandoned and surrendered children.

The section 63 of the Act states that the adoption is final on the issuance of the adoption order by the court. The sub-section 2 of Section 61 of the said Act provides that the adoption proceedings shall be disposed of by the court within a period of two months from the date of filing of an application.

Maneka said in a statement to the Lok Sabha that the heavy workload of the courts had been resulting in “inordinate delay” in issuing adoption orders.

She said that as many as 629 cases relating to the passing of orders for adoption were pending in various courts across the country as on July 20.

“Due to delay in issuing the adoption orders by the courts, the child continues to languish in the child care institutions, even after getting a family,” said the minister.

It has been decided to amend the Juvenile Justice Act to empower the 'district magistrate' to issue orders for the purpose of adoption.

“This would ensure timely processing of adoption cases and to provide orphaned, abandoned and surrendered children with familial care and protection,” said Gandhi.

The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Bill 2018 proposes substituting the words “district magistrate” for “court” and empowering the district magistrate to issue the order of adoption. It also proposes the transfer of all the proceedings pending before any court relating to adoption orders under the Juvenile Justice Act to the concerned district magistrate.