NEW DELHI: Noting that the present adoption law is too cumbersome and frustrating for adoptive parents, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said the procedure needed to be streamlined and simplified to encourage childless couples to take the legal route to adopt rather than doing it illegally.
A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and K V Viswanathan, which was hearing a case on the menace of child trafficking in the country, said people take illegal routes to adopt children as the adoption process takes years. It said not having children is a social stigma and such parents "want a child badly but the process is cumbersome".
The total number of adoptions crossed 4,500 in 2025-26 as of March 31, the highest in 11 years.
Average waiting period for adopting kids is 3.5 years
However, for many prospective adoptive parents (PAPs), the process of adopting a child continues to be a challenge with an average of 3.5 years waiting period for those seeking infants and young children. The Central Adoption Resource Authority (Cara) dashboard shows there are over 36,616 PAPs across various categories registered to adopt while the number of children available for adoption is merely 2,756.
"The present adoption process is taking too long. Parents want a child badly but the process is cumbersome and frustrating for them," SC said.
It added the existing flaw in the system was reflected in a case that was decided by it a day before, in which four parents from Telangana had adopted children, but not as per the procedure laid down by law, and police thereafter took away custody. The court allowed the plea of the four adoptive parents and restored custody of the children - aged between a few months and three years - to them by invoking its extraordinary power under Article 142 of the Constitution.
In this case, the petitioners had adopted the children after they came to know that their biological parents were not willing to keep them. They did not involve the authority concerned in the process and took custody of the children without informing it. But state the police took away the children after it came to know about the adoption, and the children were handed over to the Child Welfare Project Director and Integrated Child Protection Services.
A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and K V Viswanathan, which was hearing a case on the menace of child trafficking in the country, said people take illegal routes to adopt children as the adoption process takes years. It said not having children is a social stigma and such parents "want a child badly but the process is cumbersome".
The total number of adoptions crossed 4,500 in 2025-26 as of March 31, the highest in 11 years.
Average waiting period for adopting kids is 3.5 years
However, for many prospective adoptive parents (PAPs), the process of adopting a child continues to be a challenge with an average of 3.5 years waiting period for those seeking infants and young children. The Central Adoption Resource Authority (Cara) dashboard shows there are over 36,616 PAPs across various categories registered to adopt while the number of children available for adoption is merely 2,756.
"The present adoption process is taking too long. Parents want a child badly but the process is cumbersome and frustrating for them," SC said.
It added the existing flaw in the system was reflected in a case that was decided by it a day before, in which four parents from Telangana had adopted children, but not as per the procedure laid down by law, and police thereafter took away custody. The court allowed the plea of the four adoptive parents and restored custody of the children - aged between a few months and three years - to them by invoking its extraordinary power under Article 142 of the Constitution.
In this case, the petitioners had adopted the children after they came to know that their biological parents were not willing to keep them. They did not involve the authority concerned in the process and took custody of the children without informing it. But state the police took away the children after it came to know about the adoption, and the children were handed over to the Child Welfare Project Director and Integrated Child Protection Services.
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