Haynes lashes out at Cara

Mayura Janwalkar / DNA

Mumbai: Jennifer Haynes, 28, who was abruptly deported to India from USA in July 2008, has lashed out at an affidavit filed by Central Adoption Resources Authority's (Cara) deputy director Jagannath Pati.

Calling the affidavit filed by Pati "evasive", Haynes has stated that the Americans for International Aid and Adoption (AIAA) and Clarice D'souza of the Kuan Yin Trust in Mumbai have failed to abide by their undertaking given to the court about her relocation to the USA. She has urged the court to initiate suo-motto contempt proceedings against both the agencies.

Haynes had moved the court after her brusque deportation to India owing to incomplete documentation during her adoption twenty years back. Pati, in his affidavit filed last month, claimed that the US embassy has stated that they have "insufficient information to come to any conclusion" and it is "attempting to locate Jennifer in Mumbai to discuss her situation." Cara, too, has washed its hands off saying that they came into existence only in 1990 while Haynes was adopted in 1989. "Saying that they did not exist at the time of the adoption is no answer to the apathy that Jennifer has been subjected to," said Haynes's advocate Pradeep Havnur.

Haynes was deported on July 2, 2008 and is put up at a shelter home in Chembur since then. Haynes, in her rejoinder to the Cara's affidavit, has stated that the US Embassy's claim of trying to "locate" her in Mumbai shows its "casual approach". The Cara is well aware of her whereabouts and can easily inform the embassy of her address. Havnur however, said, "After the last hearing on July 8, the US embassy officials have made attempts to contact Jennifer but have not yet spoken to her."

Haynes has also said that the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) should bear the expenses of her stay in India as it their "unlawful and unfair" approach that led to her deportation. "The MEA without ascertaining the status of the petitioner (Haynes), has without mind, much less its application, acted mechanically by issuing travel documents to US Authorities allowing the petitioner to enter into India, which would not have been done, had the MEA acted diligently and not through telephonic conversations," Haynes's affidavit states. The court will hear Haynes's case further on July 29.