In the case of Rebecka Saudamini Arnes, who was adopted from India by a Swedish couple 33 years ago and is now in search of her biological mother, the Bombay High Court on Monday issued notice to Shraddhanand Mahilashram, Matunga, from where Arnes was adopted.
After a nearly four-year long search for her mother, Arnes moved the Bombay High Court in August with a petition filed through her lawyer Pradeep Havnur, seeking the court’s help to get more information about her mother, who is believed to have surrendered her as a two-day-old baby in Shraddhanand Mahilasharam.
In the petition filed jointly with her adoptive mother Eva Lindgren (60), Arnes has sought a court direction to the police to take action against Shraddhanand Mahilashram for not disclosing information about her biological mother. She has contended that it is her “legitimate and constitutional right to know about her origin and roots in India.”
Havnur told the court that in a similar case, the Supreme Court had allowed an Indian adopted by foreign nationals to access information about his biological parents from the adoption centre's records.
Justiced A M Khanwilkar and R G Ketkar asked Shraddhanand Mahilasharam to file its reply in the case by December 7 and adjourned the case till December 15.
Annexed to Arnes’ petition, however, is an email exchange between her and Tushar Gandhi, the great grandson of the Mahatma, who runs the Mahatma Gandhi Foundation in Mumbai, in which he had asked Arnes to stop bothering him.
Arnes had contended that her adoption was facilitated by Gandhi's parents Arun and Sunanda, who at the time helped a number of Swedish couples adopt Indian children. However, since Gandhi still lives in Mumbai, Arnes had sought his help to trace her roots. Gandhi, is however, not a respondent in her petition.
