Adoption row: Decision put off

Mysore: The Child Welfare Committee (CWC) of Mysore district on Saturday postponed its decision to Tuesday on the application of guardians of two children, who have been shifted from an institution in Mysore to another in Bengaluru to be put up for adoption against their consent.

The guardians have sought the committee to quash its decision of declaring the children legally free for adoption.

The guardians approached the CWC last Tuesday with a request to quash its earlier order.

The amended order would help the guardians in fighting their case at a court in Bengaluru, where the adoption case is pending.

Mysore CWC chairman Venkatesh said, “We have asked legal experts whether our order could be quashed, and we are waiting for their reply. We will come out with the decision on Tuesday.”

The guardians, Nataraj and Neelamma, said, “They have made us run around enough, but we will not stop fighting. The entire village and relatives have handed over to us the responsibility of taking care of the children. They are our blood relation.

“We never want to lose our relationship with them at any cost. We will never allow them to be adopted. We only want our children to be put in a good institution in Mysore as per the orders of former deputy commissioner of Mysore P. Manivannan. We want the children to have good education. We want them to be safe, and we should be allowed to meet them whenever we want.”

The two children, Navollas and Santhosh (names changed), were placed at a private institution in Mysore in 2008 after the death of their parents following orders of Manivannan.

But the children were sent to another centre in Bengaluru and were put up for adoption without the knowledge of their guardians. The Bengaluru centre had almost completed the procedure to get an Italian couple to adopt the children, when the guardians raised objection.