Trushali
- 5 May 2026
Adopted children can’t wait: Bombay HC upholds law moving adoption powers from courts to DMs
3 min readMumbaiMay 4, 2026 10:35 PM IST
As per the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act, along with the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) regulations, the adoption process required a valid order from the court.
The amendment stipulated that the DM hold the adoption proceedings in-camera and dispose of the cases within two months from the date of application filed by a specialised adoption agency. (File Photo)
The Bombay Hight Court on Monday held that district magistrates (DMs) are competent to decide adoption proceedings and upheld the provision of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Act, 2021, that granted powers to DMs to issue adoption orders.
“We have no doubt in our mind that the District Magistrate is well suited to act and assist in the welfare of the children and the Petitioners’ assumption is wrong, as it expects the sensitivity of implementing the child placement process in the course of adoption,” a bench of Justices Bharati H Dangre and Manjusha A Deshpande held.
The bench vacated an earlier order that directed governments not to transfer pending adoption matters, including foreign adoptions, before the DMs for adjudication.
As per the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act, along with the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) regulations, the adoption process required a valid order from the court, and the amendment in question replaced it with a valid order from the DMs.
The amendment stipulated that the DM hold the adoption proceedings in-camera and dispose of the cases within two months from the date of application filed by a specialised adoption agency.
A bench of Justices Bharati H Dangre and Manjusha A Deshpande passed the verdict on two writ petitions, including one by Advocate Nisha Pandya and Pradeep Pandya, residents of Kandivli, argued through advocate Vishal Kanade, that challenged the constitutional validity of the JJ Act.
A different petition by another couple, argued through advocate Avinash Gokhale, was related to the adoption of the child by proposed parents in close relation to the wife, who had filed a foreign adoption plea. The couple had also challenged the transfer of judicial powers from the Collector to the DMs.
The petitioners had claimed that the amendment in question replaced the word ‘court’ with ‘district magistrate’; the adoption procedure will be overseen by the district magistrate, an executive officer, which was otherwise entrusted to the judiciary and prevalent since 2006, and the decision was taken without any “logical reason”.
However, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh (ASG) for the Central government argued the amendment was made due to delays in the process that led to high pendency of cases.
The court observed that based on the “robust mechanism” under the JJ Act, with the aid of CARA, “there was no difficulty in the District Magistrate implementing the provisions of the Statute and determination of the eligibility of the prospective adoptive parents…”
“We find the process to be now implemented with timelines and has made the same meaningful, as expediency in passing of the Adoption Orders is the real success of the Juvenile Justice Act, as it intends to rehabilitate the subjects i.e. abandoned, orphaned and surrendered children by rehabilitating them through the adoption process,” the HC held and dismissed the pleas.