The Bombay High Court granted temporary custody of a one-and-a-half-year-old child to a couple booked for allegedly purchasing the boy from a children’s home in Nanded after paying Rs. 1.90 lakh.
A division bench of Justices A S Oka and A A Sayed was hearing a petition filed by the couple seeking quashing of an offence registered against them by the Tardeo police under section 370 (1) of the Indian Penal Code.
The couple in their petition stated that they were childless since their marriage a decade back and were looking to adopt a child when they were told by a friend that they could adopt a child from Nanded and gave them the name of a woman working at a children’s home there.
In June 2014, the couple went there and upon inquiry were asked to pay Rs. 1.90 lakh. When they paid the amount, the woman working there gave them a 10-day-old boy.
In December 2015, the Tardeo police registered an offence against the couple after they received information that the couple purchased a child without the requisite adoption formalities.
The child was taken from the couple and kept at an orphanage.
The high court after perusing the facts of the case directed that the child to be handed over to the couple on a temporary basis for a period of nine months during which the couple will have to initiate proceedings to either appoint themselves as an official guardians of the boy or adopt him.
“The police have been able to establish the identity of the child’s biological mother. But she is not willing to come forward and take custody of the child for various reasons. At this stage we are not dealing with the legality or manner in which the couple took custody of the child. We are only concerned about the welfare of the child. The couple have been taking good care of the child till he was in their custody,” the court said.
“Only for the welfare of the child, we are permitting the applicants (couple) to take temporary custody of the child for a period of nine months. In this period, the couple will have to undergo counselling sessions with a senior psychiatrist and submit medical reports of the child to the psychiatrist regularly,” it said.
The court also directed that a woman police constable from the city police’s social service cell should visit the house of the couple to ascertain if proper care is being taken of the child.
It asked both the social service cell and the psychiatrist to submit a report to it on October 26.
