Check medical history of prospective parents: HC

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court (HC) has directed the Central Adoption Resource Authority (Cara) to evolve a stringent mechanism to ensure that all aspects of adoption proposals, including medical condition of prospective adoptive parents, are taken into consideration before the organisation grants no-objection certificate (NOC) for an adoption.

The high court order comes after Cara granted NOC for adoption of an Indian child by a Belgian couple last year even though both the adoptive parents suffered f rom serious health conditions.

“Considering what has happened in the [present] case, things cannot be left as they stand,” said justice GS Kulkarni and directed the ministry of women and child development to “oversee and conduct random surveys of Cara’s functioning at all levels by deputing appropriate officers from the ministry”.

Justice Kulkarni said that in August, 2019, Cara had granted

NOC for the adoption of a threeyear-old Indian boy to a Belgian couple without analysing their health conditions. While the adoptive father had an inherent medical condition, his wife, Charcot Marie Tooth, had a severe heart condition.

The court summoned Cara director, Sanjay Barshilia, and joint director, Dr. Jagannath Pati, on February 17.

Both of them agreed that there were serious lapses in the case and adoption proposals should have been handled more carefully and sensitively.

Justice Kulkarni said Cara is expected to scrutinise every proposal from all facets, especially the medical condition of adoptive parents. The judge said that reports from medical experts should be included in the adoption file to ensure that the court concerned would not have any difficulty in proceeding with the proposal.