IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION WRIT PETITION NO. 6461 OF 2023

The chair of a parliamentary committee looking into past forced adoption practices in WA is facing calls from a group of adoptee campaigners to step down from the inquiry.

It’s been revealed Peter Foster – a WA politician who chairs the state’s Standing Committee on Environment and Public Affairs – used an overseas commercial surrogate to have a child.

Forced adoption survivor Jen McRae believes it presents a conflict of interest, as similar issues can be faced by children who were forcibly adopted and children born via commercial surrogacy.

LiSTNR News has spoken with Ms McRae, and other adoptees who claim both children of forced adoption and commercial surrogacy can experience issues around trauma, attachment and identity.

Commercial surrogacy is illegal across Australia.

The Kerala High Court recently held that a legal heirship certificate cannot be granted to an adopted person in the absence of valid documents that prove the adoption [Prameela L v State of Kerala & Ors.].

A division bench consisting of Justices Alexander Thomas and C Jayachandran passed this order while considering a plea moved by a woman (petitioner) challenging the decision of the Tahsildar refusing to grant her legal heir certificate.

In order to apply for a compassionate appointment under a dying-in-harness scheme, the petitioner had approached the Tahsildar for a legal heir certificate to declare that she was adopted by her late stepfather, Gopalan.

However, the Tahsildar refused to grant her legal heir certificate on the ground that she did not produce valid documents to prove that she was adopted.

Bufetat has now opened the door for advice and guidance to adoptees and their adoptive families. When I read the information on the websites, I was left with more questions than answers.

It is possible that I have become cynical, but for now my thought is: Well.

The information on the page is not exactly comprehensive. I called to ask my questions and was able to speak to a pleasant adviser.

Inquiries have increased considerably

The service that has now been created is primarily to refer to already existing offers that you can turn to. Which offers there should be is more unclear to me.

Frank, 22, and Victoria, 19, were adopted separately in the early 2000s, and only recently learned discovered they're biological siblings

A brother and sister who were adopted into the same family as babies recently discovered they are actually biological siblings.

Frank, 22, and Victoria, 19, were adopted separately by parents Angela and Dennis in the early 2000s, according to CBS affiliate WCBS and ABC affiliate WABC.
 

The siblings recently decided to learn more about their family history through DNA testing, only to make the shocking discovery, FOX affiliate WNYW reported.

"We were both found a year and a half apart and wound up in the same family," Frank said, per WNYW. "The odds are insane."

The Arrow of God Community Children’s Home in Onitsha has been closed down over allegations of illegal adoption and selling of children.

The Anambra State Commissioner for Women and Social Welfare, Ify Obinabo,   led security operatives to seal off the structure on Wednesday, after a report and documentary by Fisayo Soyombo made the rounds on social media and local television .

The report also accused  the state Ministry of Women and Social Welfare of involvement  in an illegal adoption of a baby girl alongside one of her registered homes in the state.

A new born baby was among about 20 children   recovered from the orphanage operator, while the founder and the employees had fled and are currently at large.

The children recovered were between the ages of one and 17 years; ten boys, nine girls, and a newborn baby.

The commissioner said that a total of 20 children, comprising of 10 boys, nine girls and a newborn were rescued from the facility and were currently in the ministry’s custody.

Anambra Government on Wednesday sealed an orphanage home, Arrow of God Community Children’s Home at Nkwelle Ezunaka in Oyi Local Government Area.

Mrs Ify Obinabo, state’s Commissioner for Women and Social Welfare, while speaking to Reporters after sealing the facility, said the licence of its owner had also been withdrawn indefinitely.

Obinabo said the action followed a news report accusing the ministry of involvement in illegal adoption of a baby girl in connivance with one of the registered homes in the state.

She added that the founder of the orphanage home, Rev. Deborah Ogo, presently at large, had ignored her invitation to explain.

MUMBAI: The Bhoiwada police have arrested four persons, including three women, allegedly involved in illegal adoption of a seven- day-old baby.
The accused made a fake agreement on a stamp paper to make it look like a genuine adoption. The biological mother of the boy, who is from Pratapgarh in UP, is among those arrested.
 

Those arrested are Bhiwandi residents Rubina Akhtar (26), Irshad Istiaq Rangrez (33), his wife Tahira (28) and Heena Parveen (28), the mother of the baby from UP. They have been charged with child trafficking, criminal conspiracy and negligence.
The crime came to light when Rangrez and Tahira, who are childless, brought the baby to Wadia Hospital for jaundice treatment. On inquiry, Tahira told doctors that she had adopted the baby from her sister-in-law.

The doctors asked them to get an NOC from the police. The cops got suspicious and upon a thorough probe found that it was a case of illegal adoption.

A Perth woman who was adopted by a West Australian family after her parents died in Ethiopia is sharing her story to help older adoptees hold onto their cultural identities.  

Meseret Cohen was 13 years old when she and her three siblings were thrust into a new life with a Busselton family.

She said being adopted as a teenager was difficult because she had already spent her formative years in Ethiopia.  

Ms Cohen now provides consultation, coaching and peer support to adoptees and their families to provide the kind of guidance she said would have been useful to her and her family.

"You have all the worldview and the values that you bring with you, and then knowing that you have to completely shift and put that away, was how I dealt with life," Ms Cohen said.

BENGALURU: An adopted son cannot continue to exercise rights as a coparcener in his genitive family, the Kalaburagi bench of the Karnataka high court has observed in a recent judgment.
Dismissing the regular second appeal filed by Bheesmaraja, a resident of Secunderabad, Justice CM Joshi has pointed out that in M Krishna vs M Ramachandra and in another case, the HC had already held that on adoption, the adoptee gets transplanted into the family that adopts him with the same rights as that of a natural-born son, and such transfer of the adopted child severs all his rights with the family from which he was taken in adoption.
 

“It was categorically heldthat he loses the right of succession in genitive family properties,” the judge added.
Son of Pandurangappa Ellur and Radhabai, Bheesmaraja was given in adoption to Hyderabad-based couple P Vishnu and P Shantabai. The adoption deed was executed on December 22, 1974; at that time, Bheesmaraja was 24 years old. His biological father died in 2004.
Thereafter, in the very same year, he moved the Raichur court for partition. He argued that the adoption was without his consent and was prohibited under the provisions of Section 10 of the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956. His mother, sister and brother resisted his claim, saying he was a consenting party to the adoption, and the suit was dismissed on December 10, 2007. OnJanuary 22, 2010, Bheesmaraja’s appeal, too, was dismissed.
Challenging both orders, he moved the HC, reiterating he is a coparcener in his genitive family and, therefore, had an existing right in family properties.

On the other hand, his mother, brother and sisters, and the children of his deceased brother, Ashokraj, argued that in the Arya Vysya community, to which they belong, adoption of a person aged more than 15 is allowed.

“If we accept the contention of the counsel for the appellant herein, it would lead to a situation whereby an adopted son would continue to be exercising rights as a coparcener in the genitive family as well as the adoptive family. Therefore, this contention at any rate cannot hold good,” the judge noted.