Stop Illegal Adoption Of Children Orphaned By Covid: Supreme Court To States, Union Territories

A Bench of Justice L Nageswara Rao and Justice Aniruddha Bose directed the governments to take action against NGOs or individuals who are indulging in illegal adoptions.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the state governments and union territories to prevent any NGO from collecting funds in the names of children orphaned by COVID-19, by disclosing their identity and inviting interested persons to adopt them. A Bench of Justice L Nageswara Rao and Justice Aniruddha Bose directed the governments to take action against NGOs or individuals who are indulging in illegal adoptions. "The State governments/Union Territories are directed to take action against those NGOs/individuals who are indulging in illegal adoptions. No adoption of affected children should be permitted contrary to the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act, 2015," stated the order. The NCPCR had sounded the alarm on a spate of complaints about illegal adoption of children orphaned by COVID-19 through private individual and organisations and added that it has received many complaints in May that private individuals and organisations have been actively collecting data on these children while claiming that they want to assist families and children in adoption.