Part of this story:
During the historical timeframe for the research project (1973–2002), there was no universally applicable law on adoption in India. The Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act of 1956 only governed adoptions by Hindu couples. Non-Hindus could not legally adopt a child. Instead, they were permitted to take a child as their ward under the Guardians and Wards Act of 1890.
The placement of Indian children for adoption abroad without a universally applicable and clear legal basis triggered a legal and political controversy in India in the 1970s and early 1980s. As a result of this, the lawyer Laxmikant Pandey filed a public interest litigation, which led to a landmark judgment by the Indian Supreme Court in 1984. This judgment codified the existing procedure. Foreign couples first had to ask an Indian court in the child's place of residence to transfer custody of the child to them. If the court agreed, the authorities granted authorisation for the child to leave the country with the parents and issued a passport. The adoption itself would take place in accordance with the laws of the state in which the foreign couple lived with the Indian adoptive child.
Sources / literature
- Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act of 1956, https://indiankanoon.org/doc/946025/, accessed 4.5.2024.
- Guardians and Wards Act of 1890, https://indiankanoon.org/doc/1874830/, accessed 4.5.2024.
- Judgment of the Supreme Court of India Lakshmi Kant Pandey vs Union Of India on 6 February 1984, https://indiankanoon.org/doc/551554/, accessed 4.5.2024.
- Asha Narayan Iyer, "Provisions and Practice. International Adoptions and the Law in India", in: Andrea Abraham, Sabine Bitter, Rita Kesselring (ed.): Mother Unknown. Adoption of Children from India in the Swiss Cantons of Zurich and Thurgau, 1973–2002, Zurich 2004, p. 91–107.
