CWC Has No Jurisdiction Over Child Who Is Not 'Orphan' Or 'Abandoned' Even If Adoption Procedure Was Not Followed: Bombay High Court
The Bombay High Court has held that the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) does not have the power to deal with a child who is neither an orphan nor abandoned. The Court observed that though due procedure was not followed in the adoption of the child, the CWC's order was not justified, and granted custody of the child back to the adoptive parents.
A division bench of Justice Urmila Joshi-Phalke and Justice Nivedita P. Mehta was hearing a petition challenging the May 25, 2026 order of the Child Welfare Committee, Chandrapur, by which custody of the minor child was taken from the petitioners, the adoptive parents of the child, and was given to the biological parents. The petitioners claimed that the biological parents had voluntarily given their third child in adoption to them and that an adoption ceremony was performed at a temple in April 2026, after which the parties to the adoption executed and signed a valid adoption deed which was notarised before the notary.
The State opposed the petition, contending that the child was given to the petitioners without following the procedure prescribed by law. The Petitioners further claimed that the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) had no role to play since the child was neither an orphan nor abandoned. The submitted that even if the adoption was not as per the CARA Guidelines, the biological parents and the petitioners entered into an agreement, and by the consent of the parties, the child was adopted.
The Court verified the adoption deed with the biological parents and the petitioners, who accepted that the child had been given in adoption by their consent. However, the Court noted that the deed was not registered and held that merely notarising is not sufficient.
“We have made an attempt to ascertain as to whether the petitioners are acquired the custody of the child by adopting procedure prescribed in law. Unfortunately, the deed of adoption executed between the parties is not registered, and merely notarising the same does not amount to a valid adoption,” the Court remarked.
The Court noted that the procedure under CARA, which had received statutory recognition under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, had not been followed.
Regarding the role of CWC, the Court referred to Chapter V of the 2015 Act, and observed that the Child Welfare Committee constituted under Chapter V of the Act is empowered to exercise the powers and discharge the duties conferred only in relation to the child in need of care and protection, as defined under Section 2(14) of the 2015 Act.
Though the Court agreed that the proper procedure of adoption was not followed, it held that since the child does not fall in the category of 'children in need of care and protection,' the order of the CWC was not justified, observing:
“… since we have already considered that the children… do not fall in the category of children in need of care and protection, the custody obtained by the CWC and passing order by the CWC handing over the child again to the biological parents is not justified. The CWC itself does not get any power to deal with the child who is neither abandoned or orphan.”
Accordingly, the Court allowed the criminal writ petition, quashed and set aside the CWC's order dated May 25, 2026, and directed the biological parents to hand over custody of the child to the petitioners.
Case Title: Nilima Dilip Kannurwar v. Child Welfare Committee [Criminal Writ Petition No. 530 of 2026]