HC Asks Condition of a Baby Who Kept in Protection House
The aggrieved parents then filed an appeal which was heard by the division bench.
Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court has asked the state’s women and child welfare department to submit a comprehensive report on the condition and well-being of a minor girl who was taken from her adoptive parents during an investigation into an alleged child trafficking network and lodged in a state home.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice G. M. Mohiuddin was dealing with an appeal filed by the adoptive parents who were seeking legal remedies to get back the two-year-old baby. Earlier, a single judge had declined to hand over custody of the girl to the couple, observing that the adoption had not been carried out through legally prescribed procedures.
The aggrieved parents then filed an appeal which was heard by the division bench. The parents agreed that procedural lapses had taken place in the adoption process and admitted that money had been paid to a mediator to secure the baby. They argued that the child’s best interests, security, and her future well-being, warranted restoring custody to them.
In support of their plea, counsel referred to a recent ruling of the Supreme Court of India in which the apex court had exercised its powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to ensure “complete justice.” Counsel requested similar consideration be extended to the couple in the present case.
The bench observed that the Supreme Court had expressly clarified that its order in that matter was case-specific and should not be treated as a precedent.
Opposing the appeal, the women and child welfare department informed the court that the child had allegedly been obtained from a prime accused in a large-scale trafficking.