A parliamentary panel chaired by senior BJP leader Sushil Modi recently made a recommendation to remove the term ‘illegitimate’ from the adoption law and emphasised that no child is illegitimate, whether born within or without wedlock. This suggestion was made during the review of the "Guardians and Wards Act" and the committee also highlighted the need to sanction a single comprehensive law that covers all guardianship aspects of various categories, regardless of religion.
The committee in the report said that it strongly feels that the word illegitimate should be omitted because the law should be the same for children, irrespective of the child being born to a couple that is married or not.
The committee also felt that there was a need to modify the act and give importance to the ‘welfare principle’ over parental authority. The former means that if a person is below 18 years and is incapable of taking care of themselves or handling their own affairs, a guardian is appointed to take care of the minor and their property. This should be given precedence over parental authority aka the situation where all minor children are subject to either parental responsibility. The committee also said that there is a need to define what ‘welfare of the child’ means in broader terms in both the acts.
On Friday, 5th August 2022, the Supreme Court said that child adoption processes in the country needed to be streamlined urgently as they’re very tedious.
A bench of judges including DY Chandrachud and JB Pardiwala asked the Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj–who appeared on behalf of the Centre–to file a response to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that details the steps to streamline the processes of adoption of children in the country.
The bench observed that The Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) usually has a capacity of facilitating 2,000 adoptions a year but has now upped it to 4,000. Whilst this is a good development, there are three crore orphaned children in the country who are in need of a permanent home and family.