HC directs return of child to adoptive parents, rules welfare body custody unlawful

The Calcutta High Court has directed the Child Welfare Committee to hand over a three-year-old child to the adoptive parents, holding that the child was neither an "orphan" nor "abandoned" and did not come under the category of children in need of care and protection. In a judgment passed on September 17, Justice Krishna Rao said the committee's decision to take custody of the child from the petitioners was not in accordance with the law.

While noting that the adoption process was not carried out as required by law, the court said the child should be returned to the petitioners and asked them to take the necessary steps before the appropriate court for a declaration that they are the child's adoptive parents. As a precaution and in the child's best interest, the court said the Member Secretary of the District Legal Services Committee, South 24 Parganas, will seek quarterly reports on the child's welfare and progress from December.

The court also allowed the Member Secretary to depute a child welfare expert to inspect the petitioners' home, where the child resides. Justice Rao said that since the child was neither an "orphan" nor "abandoned" and did not fall within the category of "children in need of care and protection" under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, "the action of the Child Welfare Committee taking the custody of the child from the petitioners is not is accordance with the law."

The court recorded that there was no dispute that the biological parents had given the child in adoption to the petitioners, but the proper procedure was not followed. According to the case records, the biological parents, who were unable to care for the child, voluntarily handed over the baby to the petitioners on the day of birth on April 3, 2023, and a deed of adoption was executed between them.

Later, when the petitioners approached the hospital where the child was born to obtain a birth certificate for school admission, they were told to approach the Child Welfare Committee and that the certificate would be issued only after that. The petitioners then approached the committee on February 18, 2026, and narrated the full sequence of events. The CWC took the child into its custody, after which the petitioners moved the high court. The court has now ordered that the child be returned to the petitioners, while also directing them to regularise their status before the appropriate court and providing for periodic checks on the child's welfare.- EndsWith PTI inputsPublished By: India Today Web Desk Published On: Sep 18, 2026 22:14 IST