Couple from Pune seeks preference over foreigners in adoption
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By Swati Deshpande
September 28, 2013 / Times of India
MUMBAI: One baby for adoption in a Pune centre has two sets of prospective adoptee parents-Indian and foreign.
The Indian couple, not wishing to lose out on the girl child, has now moved the Bombay HC for an order to permit only them to adopt her. The HC heard the plea on Friday in a judge's chambers. A couple married for 12 years with no child of their own decided to adopt.
They registered themselves with The Society of Friends of The Sassoon Hospitals to adopt a child last September. The society conducted a detailed home study on the couple Veena and Ajay Singh (names changed) in May and called them for a visit in July to select a baby. The couple saw three babies at the centre and decided immediately to adopt one of them, a baby girl. However, the following month they said they were informed that the baby was shown to a foreign couple who decided to adopt her. Yet, last month the couple attended a pre-adoption counselling meeting. On September 10, a week after the Singhs wrote to the adoption resource agency asking about the baby, they were given a "list of 13 babies with special needs". A week later they wrote to the centre that they wished to adopt the tiny bundle. Afraid that the baby may now be given in to international adoption, the Singhs moved the HC on Friday to prevent just that. They said if the child was adopted by the prospective foreign adoptive parents why was the child even shown to them in July? ''The child was show with an understanding that she was free for adoption.''
The couple also sites the adoption guidelines which clearly state that if a baby can be adopted within the country that should be given preference as aim is to place a child ''in a family within his or her own socio-cultural milieu in the country itself.''
They have asked the HC to direct the centre and the state agency to give the baby in adoption only to them.
The Indian couple, not wishing to lose out on the girl child, has now moved the Bombay HC for an order to permit only them to adopt her. The HC heard the plea on Friday in a judge's chambers. A couple married for 12 years with no child of their own decided to adopt.
They registered themselves with The Society of Friends of The Sassoon Hospitals to adopt a child last September. The society conducted a detailed home study on the couple Veena and Ajay Singh (names changed) in May and called them for a visit in July to select a baby. The couple saw three babies at the centre and decided immediately to adopt one of them, a baby girl. However, the following month they said they were informed that the baby was shown to a foreign couple who decided to adopt her. Yet, last month the couple attended a pre-adoption counselling meeting. On September 10, a week after the Singhs wrote to the adoption resource agency asking about the baby, they were given a "list of 13 babies with special needs". A week later they wrote to the centre that they wished to adopt the tiny bundle. Afraid that the baby may now be given in to international adoption, the Singhs moved the HC on Friday to prevent just that. They said if the child was adopted by the prospective foreign adoptive parents why was the child even shown to them in July? ''The child was show with an understanding that she was free for adoption.''
The couple also sites the adoption guidelines which clearly state that if a baby can be adopted within the country that should be given preference as aim is to place a child ''in a family within his or her own socio-cultural milieu in the country itself.''
They have asked the HC to direct the centre and the state agency to give the baby in adoption only to them.
2013 Sep 28