Adoption in India runs on two parallel tracks, and choosing the right one at the outset saves a great deal of trouble.
Route 1: the Juvenile Justice Act and CARA
This is the secular route, open to everyone, and it is the one used for adopting a child who is legally free for adoption. It is governed by the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 and the Adoption Regulations framed by the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), which is the statutory body constituted under Section 68 of that Act. Section 56 provides for adoption, Section 57 sets out who is eligible to adopt, and Section 58 lays down the procedure for Indian prospective adoptive parents living in India. The steps:
- Register as prospective adoptive parents on the CARINGS portal and upload the required documents.
- Home study report prepared by a Specialised Adoption Agency.
- Referral of a child, which you may reserve and accept after seeing the child study and medical report.
- Matching and pre-adoption foster care.
- Adoption order. The adoption is finalised by the District Magistrate under the 2015 Act as amended, rather than by the civil court as before.
- Follow-up reports for a period after placement.
Eligibility covers single people as well as couples, with rules on the composite age of the parents relative to the age of the child, on marital stability, and on the number of children already in the family.
Two things about the court step are commonly out of date in older articles. Since the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Act, 2021 came into force on 1 September 2022, the adoption order is issued by the District Magistrate rather than by the civil court, and an appeal against that order lies to the Divisional Commissioner within thirty days. And under Section 61 the proceedings are held in camera, so nothing about the child becomes public. On the ground in Karnataka the work runs through the District Child Protection Unit and the Specialised Adoption Agency recognised for the district, with the State Adoption Resource Agency in the Department of Women and Child Development coordinating.
Be realistic about timing. Registration and document upload on CARINGS is quick, the home study follows, and then you wait, because seniority runs from the date of registration and the wait turns on the age group you have opted for and the availability of children in the states you have chosen. A referral has to be accepted within the period the regulations allow, and letting one lapse relegates your seniority to the bottom of the list, which is the most expensive mistake available in the whole process. Adoption of a healthy infant commonly takes years rather than months; older children, sibling groups and children with special needs are matched considerably faster. The statutory fees are prescribed and modest, so the cost sits in documentation, home study and travel rather than in litigation. The guide on adoption law in India takes the CARA process step by step and sets out the eligibility criteria in full.
Route 2: the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956
Available to Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs. It is a personal law adoption, effected by a valid giving and taking, and commonly recorded in a registered adoption deed. It has its own conditions, including that a person cannot adopt a son if they already have a Hindu son, and equivalent for a daughter, and a minimum 21 year age gap where the child is of the opposite sex to the adoptive parent.
Those conditions are in Section 11 of the Act and they are strict. A son cannot be adopted where the adoptive parent has a living Hindu son, son's son or son's son's son, whether by blood or by adoption; a daughter cannot be adopted where there is a living Hindu daughter or son's daughter; and where a male adopts a female, or a female adopts a male, the adoptive parent must be at least twenty-one years older than the child. Sections 6 to 10 cover the rest of the ground: who is capable of taking a child in adoption, who is capable of giving one, and who may be adopted. Get the deed registered, because Section 16 raises a presumption in favour of a registered document recording an adoption and signed by the person giving and the person taking the child. That presumption is what saves an adoption when it is questioned twenty years later in a succession suit by somebody who was not there.
Taking a child directly from a relative, hospital or intermediary without going through the statutory process is not adoption, and depending on how it is done can amount to a serious offence. It also leaves the child with no secure legal status for succession, school records or a passport. Use the statutory route.
Effect of a valid adoption
The child becomes the child of the adoptive parents for all purposes, including inheritance, from the date of adoption.
That is spelt out in Section 63 of the Juvenile Justice Act for the statutory route and in Section 12 of the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act for the personal law route, and both say the same thing in substance. The child becomes the child of the adoptive family for all purposes including intestate succession, and the ties with the family of birth stand severed, save that property which had already vested in the child before the adoption continues to vest in the child.
Which route applies to you
- Adopting a child in the care of the State, or adopting as a non-Hindu? The Juvenile Justice Act route through CARA, with registration, home study and an adoption order from the District Magistrate.
- Hindu, Buddhist, Jain or Sikh, adopting a relative's child or a known child? The Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956, where a valid giving and taking completes the adoption.
- Muslim, Christian, Parsi or Jewish? Personal law does not recognise adoption in the same sense, so the Juvenile Justice Act route or guardianship applies.
- A non-resident or foreign national? The CARA inter-country route, with the additional clearances that involves.
- You want care and control without severing the child's ties to the natural family? Guardianship under the Guardians and Wards Act, not adoption.
When guardianship is the answer instead
Adoption is not always available or appropriate, and where it is not, the alternative is guardianship. A court-appointed guardian has custody and can deal with the ward's affairs within limits, but a ward does not become the guardian's child and does not inherit as one, and the guardianship ends when the ward attains majority. That is the difference that matters most in the long run, and it is the reason guardianship should be a considered choice rather than a fallback. The note on guardianship law in India sets out the natural, testamentary and court-appointed varieties and what each of them permits.