Summary
The petitioner, Lakshmi Kant Pandey, an attorney, wrote to the Supreme Court (Court) alleging neglect and malpractice on the part of social organizations and private adoption agencies facilitating the adoption of Indian children to foreign parents. He noted the long and hazardous journeys these children made to foreign countries, along with instances of neglect they experienced from their adoptive parents resulting in impoverishment or sexual exploitation of the children. The Court treated his letter as a writ petition (a filing made with a higher court to secure prompt review of an issue) and this instituted the basis of the public interest litigation.
In its judgment, the Court noted that the absence of legal regulation of inter-country adoptions in India could cause enormous harm to Indian children who may, for example, be exposed to the abuses of profiteering or trafficking. In order to protect the welfare of children, the Court, in consultation with several social or child welfare institutions, laid out a comprehensive framework of normative and procedural safeguards for regulating inter-country adoption as protection against abuse, maltreatment or exploitation of children and to secure them a healthy, decent family life. While formulating standards and procedures the Court referenced various relevant laws and policies including Articles 15(3), 24, and 39 of the Indian Constitution regarding child welfare, and the principles embodied in the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of the Child (1959). The delineated safeguards include, amongst several others, the requirement that foreigners wishing to adopt be sponsored by relevant licensed agencies in their own country, that no adoption application from a foreigner should be entertained directly by any adoption agency in India, that agencies working on inter-country adoptions and licensed by the Government of India must meet certain stipulated criteria and undertake specific responsibilities in ensuring the safety and well-being of adopted children, and that all inter-country adoption proceedings must be approved by the local courts.