A child should not be lost in its search for paternity, said the court, directing family courts adjudicating between warring parents to order DNA tests only as a last resort

The Supreme Court has held in a judgment that children cannot be mechanically subjected to DNA tests in each and every case between warring parents as a short-cut to establish proof of infidelity.

“Genetic information is personal and intimate,” a Bench of Justices V. Ramasubramanian and B.V. Nagarathna observed in a judgment. “It sheds light on a person’s very essence... The information goes to the very heart of who she or he is,” the judgment added, emphasising that “a child’s genetic information is part of his fundamental right to privacy.”

“Children have the right not to have their legitimacy questioned frivolously before a court of law. This is an essential attribute of the right to privacy. Courts are therefore required to acknowledge that children are not to be regarded like material objects, and be subjected to forensic/DNA testing, particularly when they are not parties to the divorce proceeding. It is imperative that children do not become the focal point of the battle between spouses,” Justice Nagarathna, who authored the judgment, underscored.

‘Psychological trauma’

As of 1 May 2023, Lonneke Kapoen will become Director of Advice, Direction and Central Authority at the Directorate-General for Punishment and Protection of the Ministry of Justice and Security.

The Directorate for Advice, Direction and Central Authority (ARC) provides expertise to the Directorate-General for Punishment and Protection (DGSenB) by advising, facilitating and testing (solicited and unsolicited) on policy issues in the areas of finance, business operations and legal affairs , information provision and subsidies. In addition, the management supports the DGSenB in the implementation of work processes, but above all in cooperation with all organizations, such as DJI, Child Protection Board, probation organizations, CJIB, OM, ZM, Police. In addition, the director is responsible for the Central Authority for International Children's Affairs (CA) and has an important liaison function in international child abduction, child protection and adoption.

Eric Bezem: “I am very pleased that Lonneke will join the DG with her energy, broad experience and clout. Lonneke is collaborative and with her open and curious attitude she will be appreciated both within and outside the DG.”

Lonneke Kapoen: “Let policy work, that is my motto. No impact without good policy. How wonderful to be able to bridge the gap between policy and implementation within the chain of punishment and protection in this position. I look forward to contributing to a safe and just society. In this position I can create the conditions and fulfill the connecting role for a good translation of politics and policy into implementation and vice versa. I look forward to working with colleagues in the department as well as with all partners outside it."

Lonneke Kapoen has been working at the Netherlands Enterprise Agency of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate since 2017. Currently as department manager Implementation Policy where she is responsible for easily implementable policy for enterprising Netherlands. Previously, she worked at the Ministry of Justice in Security in various (management) positions in implementation, staff and policy and at the European Union. Her areas of work have always been at the intersection of policy and implementation and the proper translation of these to society. Lonneke brings a lot of (implementation) knowledge in the areas of finance, legal frameworks, data-driven working, subsidy schemes and process design. She has also earned her spurs several times within the international playing field.

Those who ordered or contributed to the deportation of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia to be "deprogrammed", adopted and still contribute to the repopulation will have to answer for this war crime for decades and decades beyond the end of the war.

We call on France to work to help investigate this case and to see judges identified to punish those responsible.

Everything must be done now to allow these children to return as soon as possible to their loved ones or to their country.

Russia is violating the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, a treaty that binds almost all States in the world. It must be accountable to the international community. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has the right to call it out more firmly than ever.

We, the signatories, will remain mobilized to ensure that justice is done for what international law calls genocide.

THANE: A newborn found abandoned in a drain in Ulhasnagar in Maharashtra’s Thane district in 2018 has been adopted by an Italian couple, said a functionary of a local organisation that rescued him and registered a police complaint at the time.

The child, with severe injuries to his head and illness due to consumption of contaminated water, was found in a drain in Vadol village on December 30 that year by Shivaji Ragade and his wife Jayshree.

They filed a complaint with police to find out who had thrown the child in the drain, though that search is yet to yield results.

An appeal for money for his treatment at Wadia Hospital in Mumbai post the trauma yielded Rs 10.42 lakh in 24 hours, Shivaji Ragade said.

“We wanted to adopt the child but could not do so due to some legal issues, so he was given in the care of Vishwa Balak Ashram. He was named Tiger due to the resolve with which the child survived despite being thrown into a drain,” Ragade said.

Kochi: Ernakulam Child Welfare Committee has decided to cancel the procedures to declare the baby, who was illegally adopted by a couple from Tripunithura, as free for adoption. The committee has made the decision after the biological parents of the six-months-old baby turned up before CWC and requested to keep the baby with the committee for some time, expressing their helplessness to take the baby home now.

"We haven't asked about their inability to take the baby home now. Since they have expressed the willingness to take back the baby but requested more time, we have cancelled the procedure for legally declaring the baby as ready for adoption," said a CWC official.

The baby is currently under care in a childcare home functioning with the government's approval. The illegal adoption of the baby, born at Kalamassery medical college, came to light after a municipality staff filed a complaint against a staff in the hospital for allegedly making a fake birth certificate.

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The newborn was rescued from the drain by a couple—Shivaji and Jayashree Ragade—on December 30, 2018. Till the time of his adoption, the Ragade couple looked after all his requirements

Ambernath: Tiger, now four-year-old, who was abandoned in a drain in Ambernath hours after his birth, on Friday got a new home and set of parents after he was adopted by an Italian couple.

The couple visited Vishwa Balak Kendra in Nerul and flew back with Tiger.

The newborn was rescued from the drain by a couple—Shivaji and Jayashree Ragade—on December 30, 2018. Till the time of his adoption, the Ragade couple looked after all his requirements.

“After an eight-month-long process Tiger finally got his parents. It is not that we did not try to adopt him, but one cannot adopt a child by choice. Hence, we had to wait for another family to adopt him and look after his future,” Ragade said.

The newborn was rescued from the drain by a couple—Shivaji and Jayashree Ragade—on December 30, 2018. Till the time of his adoption, the Ragade couple looked after all his requirements

Ambernath: Tiger, now four-year-old, who was abandoned in a drain in Ambernath hours after his birth, on Friday got a new home and set of parents after he was adopted by an Italian couple.

The couple visited Vishwa Balak Kendra in Nerul and flew back with Tiger.

The newborn was rescued from the drain by a couple—Shivaji and Jayashree Ragade—on December 30, 2018. Till the time of his adoption, the Ragade couple looked after all his requirements.

The Gujarat High Court on Friday held that a registered deed of adoption is enough to prove the validity of adoption of a child under Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956, and that there is no requirement to have a civil court decree asserting such deed, for change in birth records.

The court was hearing a bunch of petitions in which the question before the court was whether the competent authorities can refuse to change the birth records in the absence of a decree of a competent court.

While allowing the petitions, the single judge bench of Justice Biren Vaishnav held:

“The parties to the Registration Deed have consented to take the child in adoption. No objections have come from the biological father with regard to the mode and the manner of adoption and therefore as held that the presumption though being rebuttable no roadblock or dispute has been raised for the adoption of the child, relegating the parties then to undertake the rigmarole of approaching the Court when the deed of adoption is filed before the Registrar would not render the Registrar powerless to make the corrections.”

Kaushal Pandya, the counsel appearing for Surat Municipal Corporation, contended that unless the parties approach the appropriate court under the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956 and obtain decrees for validating adoption, no request for alterations of name in the birth certificates can be entertained.

The Gujarat High Court recently held that a registered deed of adoption with a registrar is sufficient to prove the adoption of a child and that there is not requirement to have a civil court decree affirming such deed [Khojema Saifudin Dodiya vs Registrar, Birth and Death].

Single-judge Justice Biren Vaishnav refused to agree with a Bombay High Court decision in this regard which had held that only a civil court can decide if the adoption was legal and done after following due procedure.

which had said that deleting the biological father's name from the birth certificate of a child could be drastic.

"In the opinion of this Court, the refusal to do so and not correcting the birth certificate of the ward post the adoption would lead to multiple hurdles in day-to-day affairs connecting the dealings with various public or other authorities and the practical difficulties that they would face would be more drastic if the power under Section 15 of the Registration of Birth and Deaths Act is not exercised in favour of the parties," the judge opined.

The bench was seized of a plea filed by a woman, who sought to change the middle and last names of her son. The woman had a child from her first marriage.

On March 27, 1980, In-Soo Radstake arrived at Schiphol with eight others from South Korea. Their journey had started about twenty-four hours earlier from the Korean capital of Seoul to Tokyo and finally, via Alaska, ended in the Netherlands. And there a new journey began for him: an inner journey to find his way back to his identity.

I came to Rotterdam for love. As a starting filmmaker, I was actually on my way from Zwolle, where I had studied journalism, to Amsterdam: the beating heart of Dutch film making. But in 2003 I went to Rotterdam to research my first documentary called Made in Korea: a one-way ticket Seoul-Amsterdam? In this documentary I wanted to visit all eight adoptees who were on the same plane with me after almost twenty-five years. I was curious how they had experienced their adoption.

Poster for the documentary 'Made in Korea: a one-way ticket Seoul-Amsterdam?' Photo from personal archive In-Soo Radstake.

And one of those eight would become my girlfriend. I called it love at second sight because not long after our first meeting, in 2003 in a restaurant on the Meent, we fell in love with each other. She immediately made it clear to me that she lived in Rotterdam and did not want to leave here. The city reminded her of another port city, that of Busan in South Korea. The Rotterdam skyline with its tall buildings, the ships that sail on the Maas and the lights that burn everywhere. When she told me that, I had never been to South Korea, let alone Busan.

But that I had never been to South Korea, that was not right. I was born there, spent the first three months of my life in an orphanage in Seoul. Here in the Netherlands a second life began for me, with a Dutch father, a Dutch mother and a non-biological sister who was also adopted from South Korea. So I should have said that I had never been back.