Court cancels orphanage licence

NEW DELHI: The license of an orphanage, Bal Vihar, in Uttam Nagar, which was not recognised by the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), was cancelled on Monday by the guardianship judge at Tis Hazari Court and an inquiry into the discrepancy of their records was ordered. According to an inspection report, submitted by the CWC about this orphanage, at least 13 children out of the 90 names entered were reportedly missing in July. When asked about this discrepancy, the Sadhu Sunder Singh welfare trust, which runs this orphanage, replied that the children had gone for a vacation to “their relatives' house”. “I would want to know that if these children had relatives, why were they kept in an orphanage. Is this a hostel?” said D D Singhla, an advocate at Tis Hazari court. All the children were sent under the protection of CWC. Singhla had been fighting a case for custody of a four-year-old boy, Prateek, who went missing four years ago, to be restored to his natural parents. However, Prateek had been taken to Bal Vihar back then by the police (without being produced in front of a magistrate and to an orphanage not recognised by the CWC) and was fraudulently adopted, within 10 days of him going missing, by Anil Jindal in Uttam Nagar. “The adoption deed had empty columns, no permission from any magistrate, as is mandatory under Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2000, was sought and there was no notice by the police. We challenged the adoption and now Prateek's parents, Dinesh and Babita Sharma, have been granted his custody,” said Singhla. Judge Surendra S Rathi also initiated an inquiry against the police. In the case of Bal Vihar, the welfare society running it is registered under the Society's Act and cannot open up any branch or act as an adoption agency. medha.chaturvedi@timesgroup.com