Couple, with one foreign parent, wanting to adopt would be termed `in-country`: HC

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Thursday held that couples where one of the parents is an Indian national and the other of foreign origin and are desirous of adopting a child in India, would be termed as 'in-country', thus reducing the formalities to be followed by them.

A division bench of Justices VM Kanade and B P Colabawala was hearing a petition filed by an American woman married to an Indian seeking to adopt a six-year-old boy with special needs who has been in her foster care.

The bench today permitted the woman to file an application for adoption of the boy before a magistrate court which has been directed to decide the plea expeditiously.

The court held that rule 40 of the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) which mandates 'No Objection Certificate' from the agency for 'inter-country' adoptions will not be applicable to this case as it was 'in-country'.

The woman approached the High Court when her application for child adoption was not accepted by CARA.

While CARA claims their NOC is required in this case as the lady is an American, the woman has said she has been living in India since her marriage to an Indian citizen six years back and even has PAN card and other documents.

The child was born to an unwed woman who put him in a Pune-based adoption agency. The adoption agency took care of him till the age of six after which he was sent to foster home and advertisements were issued for his adoption.

The boy was in the foster care of the petitioner woman who then expressed her desire to adopt the child.

The bench today posted the matter to July 30 when it would consider issuing guidelines to be followed by the authorities while dealing with such cases.