Justice Manisha Pitale of the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court held that adoption cannot be restricted to children who have been orphaned, abandoned or those in conflict with law. The Juvenile Justice Act permits adoption of children of relatives, she said.

The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court has held that as per the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act, adoption of children cannot be restricted only to orphaned, abandoned, surrendered children or those in conflict with the law, adding the law also permits adoption of children of relatives.

A single-judge bench of Justice Manisha Pitale was hearing a petition filed by the biological parents of a girl child from Wardha who wanted their daughter to be adopted by a family from Yavatmal in Maharashtra. The Yawatmal lower court had rejected their plea under the provisions of the JJ Act and Adoption Regulations framed under this Act.

The ground that the lower court had taken that since the child, in this case, is neither a child in conflict with the law, nor a child in need of care and protection, nor an orphan, nor a surrendered/abandoned child, the provisions of the JJ Act are not applicable.

Since there were no respondents in the case, Justice Pitale appointed Advocate FT Mirza as amicus curiae to assist the court for proper disposal. Advocate Mirza also supported the prayer made on behalf of the parents.

After three long years of search and struggle, Sreya and Nikhil (names changed), a Bangalore-based

couple, managed to adopt a four-year-old boy. Sreya says she initially wanted a baby girl, a newborn if

that would have been possible. But the options were limited and the couple finally went with the boy. It

has brought happiness and joy into the lives of the childless couple. They are so relieved that they

managed to adopt a child after so long.

Forever family is like a manufactured Hallmark idea”: Adoption discontinuity experiences of intercountry adoptees

Highlights

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Intercountry adoptees with adoption discontinuity experiences experience legal, residential, relational, and cultural losses

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Jane Blasio went looking for her biological parents and uncovered a shocking scandal — she was one of hundreds of infants illegally sold in the 1950s and 1960s from a clinic in Georgia

Six-year-old Jane Blasio was playing in her backyard one afternoon when her life was upended. Her father, Jim, asked her to come indoors because he wanted to tell her something.

The Akron, Ohio resident ran inside to find Jim puffing on a cigarette.

"We have something to tell you and it may be hard for you to understand," he said to Blasio and her sister Michelle, 11, who sat at the kitchen table.

As he fumbled for his words, Joan, the girls' mother, announced, "You two were adopted. Do you know what that means?"

As per data by WDCW, till May this year, around 143 children were orphaned due to COVID-19, of which 30 are from Hyderabad.

HYDERABAD: In a bid to curb illegal adoption taking place after the second COVID wave, the State Women Development and Children Welfare (WDCW) Department launched awareness campaigns and counselling sessions.

Fatalities in the second wave of the COVID pandemic have left several children orphaned. As per data by WDCW, till May this year, around 143 children were orphaned due to COVID-19, of which 30 are from Hyderabad.

Amidst this chaos, many social media platforms were flooded with adoption posts for orphaned children. Experts say that adoption through these ways can not just lead to human trafficking but also have legal repercussions.

Legally, adoptions can be done by a Specialised Adoption Agency (SAA). Regarding this, training will be given to SAA Managers and social workers from July 12 to 17 at the WDCW office.

LEGAL COUNSEL FOR women seeking judicial reviews of the final report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes report have proposed proceeding with three test cases in the High Court.

Eight women, some of whom cannot be named, are taking legal challenges against the Irish State.

A number of women have claimed that their testimony was misrepresented in the report and have taken issue with the fact they were not given a right to reply before the report was published in January.

A test case is one brought forward that would then set a precedent for future similar cases.

The Journal understands that the three proposed test cases are those being brought by high-profile survivors Philomena Lee, Mary Harney and Mari Steed.

(CNN)There could be a new princess in Disney's royal court.

Nearly two decades after Sarah Culberson discovered that her father was the chief of a village in Sierra Leone, the West Virginia native's life story could finally come to the big screen.

Culberson, who is biracial, was put up for adoption in 1976 at just a few months old, and was raised by a White family, the Culbersons, in Morgantown, West Virginia.

Her biological father, Joseph Konia Kposowa, is from Sierra Leone and is chief of the royal family of the Mende tribe in Bumpe, Sierra Leone, which makes Culberson a princess. Her biological mother was White.

The discovery "gave me a deeper sense of my identity as being someone who operates and straddles two different worlds and cultures," Culberson told CNN. "Learning about my history in Sierra Leone, my family, community, country, that makes a huge part of who I am."

Is it good or bad to adopt a child? And should intercountry adoption continue or not? Special professor Femmie Juffer and emeritus professor by special appointment René Hoksbergen, both specialized in adoption, discuss these issues. But they don't agree.

Update

On Monday 8 February 2021, Minister Sander Dekker will announce that the adoption of children from abroad will be suspended. He decides this following a report on the system of so-called intercountry adoption in the Netherlands. It is up to the next cabinet to take a position on the future of intercountry adoption. Read more about this decision here .

In the series ' I'm not from Sri Lanka ', we follow Dinja Pannebakker, a young woman of 32 who was adopted from Sri Lanka. She herself feels completely Dutch and has no need for connection with her native soil.

Pannebakker is one of more than 3,400 Sri Lankan children who have been adopted by Dutch parents since the 1970s. In 2018, adoption from Sri Lanka was definitively stopped. Adoption from a dozen other countries, or 'intercountry adoption', still exists, although the number of adoptees is decreasing every year. In 2018, a total of 156 children were brought to the Netherlands from abroad. Most of them come from China (28), Hungary (24) or the United States (23). Within the Netherlands, 21 children were adopted last year and placed with other Dutch families.

Hong Kong (CNN) — The abduction of 2-year-old Guo Xinzhen in eastern China in 1997 sparked a desperate, seemingly never-ending nationwide search by his parents

that inspired filmmakers to bring their story to the big screen.

But this week -- 24 years after his disappearance -- the search for Guo finally came to an end.

Police in Liaocheng City, Shandong province, said Monday they had found Guo, now an adult living in neighboring Henan province -- and had reunited him with his parents.

Video footage of the reunion on Sunday, released by police, shows the family in tears and embracing tightly, crying out, "We found you, you've come back."

PHOENIX (AP) — A woman who acknowledged helping a former Arizona politician in an illegal adoption scheme involving women from the Marshall Islands was sentenced to two years in prison Tuesday.

Lynwood Jennet, 47, took part in submitting false applications for the birth mothers to receive state-funded health coverage, even though none of the women resided in the state. She had pleaded guilty to conspiracy and theft charges for her role at the direction of Paul Petersen, a Republican who served as Maricopa County assessor for six years.

FILE - In this Nov. 5, 2019, file photo, is former Maricopa County Assessor Paul Petersen, right, with his attorney, Kurt Altman, after a court hearing in Phoenix. Prosecutors in Arkansas are seeking a 10-year prison sentence for Petersen for his conspiracy conviction in running an illegal adoption scheme involving women from the Marshall Islands. He also faces sentencings in Arizona and Utah during January for convictions related to the adoption scheme. (AP Photo/Jacques Billeaud, File)

Petersen worked as an adoption attorney before resigning his elected post and pleading guilty in three states to crimes related to the scheme. The health care fraud committed by Petersen and Jennet totaled $814,000, authorities said.

Petersen is in prison serving a total of 11 years for a conviction in Arkansas for conspiring to commit human smuggling and a health care fraud conviction in Arizona.