Caste Of Adopted Child Will Be Same As That Of Adoptive Parents: Bombay High Court

The caste of an adopted child would be the same as that of his or her adoptive parents, held the Bombay High Court on January 29, while quashing the order passed by the Deputy Collector, Pune who cancelled the caste certificate issued to an adopted child.A division bench of Justice Makarand Karnik and Justice Shriram Modak was dealing with a plea filed by a woman, who adopted a male child on August 22, 2014 which was permitted by a District Court in Pune under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act.The judges noted that the woman and her husband belonged to the Special Backward Category and therefore, she applied for a caste certificate for her adopted son. The Deputy Collector, by an order passed on June 19, 2017, granted a caste certificate in name of her son. However, on an 'unknown' person's complaint, alleging that the woman obtained the certificate on false documents, a Sub-divisional officer conducted an enquiry and as per his order dated February 21, 2018 cancelled the caste certificate. The woman argued that when the parents of adopted child are not known and if there is valid adoption, the caste of the adopted child would be the same as that of the adoptive parents whereas State counsel supported the impugned order while pointing out that there is no provision in the Maharashtra Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, De-Notified Tribes (Vimukta Jatis), Nomadic Tribes, other Backward Classes and Special Backward Category (Regulation of Issuance and Verification of Caste) Certificate Act, 2000 for grant of caste certificate of adopted child.Considering the contentions, the bench referred to the observations of co-ordinate benches on this very issue and even that of the Supreme Court and said that while it agreed with the rulings earlier, it only wanted to assign 'additional' reasons on the issue. The judges referred to the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act (both of 2000 and 2015) which defines 'adoption' and the effect of the same. "The effect of adoption is severing of ties of such child from his family of natural parents and it is replaced by creating ties with the family of adoptive parents," the bench underlined. The judges made it clear that when an adoption process is completed, the child becomes the 'legitimate' child of the adoptive parents. "When the process of adoption is completed, the adopted child becomes legitimate child of the parents and all rights, privileges and responsibilities are bestowed on him which are attached to that relationship. It is by way of deeming fiction. If such right is not bestowed on him, his future will remain in limbo and his future will be in dark. In order to deal with such a situation, legislatures have given the meaning of adoption," the judges held. The judges opined that the Case Scrutiny Committee and also the Divisional authorities did not consider the legal effect of adoption as contemplated under aforesaid provisions of JJ Act."Considering the said perspective the decision of the Committee needs to be set aside. The adopted child needs to be given a legal status as being the child of adoptive parents. The Petitioner's adoptive parents belong to Special Backward Category. Adopted child has to be given the same status. Ultimately Court has to interpret the provisions of Maharashtra Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, De-Notified Tribes (Vimukta Jatis), Nomadic Tribes, other Backward Classes and Special Backward Category (Regulation of Issuance and Verification of Caste) Certificate Act, 2000 by considering the provisions of JJ Act. So we are inclined to allow the Petition," the judges held. With these observations, the bench ordered the District Caste Scrutiny Committee to issue a fresh caste certificate to the child. Appearance:Advocates Yash Agarwal, Disha Rathod, Ruturaj Bethe and Vaibhav Kulkarni appeared for the Petitioner.Assistant Government Pleader GR Raghuwanshi represented the State.Case Title: GDA vs State of Maharashtra (Writ Petition 14840 of 2022)Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Bom) 46Click Here To Read/Download Judgment

Caste Of Adopted Child Will Be Same As That Of Adoptive Parents: Bombay High Court

Narsi Benwal

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