Australian Woman’s Claim over Biological Daughter Refuted by Indian Court

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has refused to give an Australian woman of India-origin rights over her 13- year old biological daughter, whom she had given for adoption to her second husband, based in India.

According to a report in the Times of India, the court said that the biological mother doesn’t have any right on the child after he/she has been given up for adoption.

The court gave this ruling while dismissing the petition filed by the Australia based woman. The girl was born from woman’s first marriage. After her divorce, the woman got married to a divorced man and gave her daughter to her second husband for adoption in 2009, according to the report.

The petitioner woman, who has been living in Australia, wanted to take her daughter with her. She applied for her visa but since the girl was minor, Australian High Commission in Delhi raised an objection as there was “no signatures” by adoptive father, SBS said.

The woman’s lawyer told the court that the adoptive father was not signing the visa papers. Her lawyer also requested the court to direct the Australian High Commission not to obstruct the visa process because of the absence of signatures by non-accompanying adoptive father.

The lawyer also cited the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), that gives the children the right to live with the parents of their choice.

“Even if it is presumed for the sake of arguments that the petitioner minor girl is the biological daughter of her mother, yet there is no dispute that the mother has given her daughter in adoption by way of an adoption deed… An adoptive child shall be deemed to be the child of his or her adoptive father or mother for all purposes with effect from the date of the adoption and all the ties of the child in the family of his or her birth shall be deemed to be severed,” said Justice Jain, according to the Times id India report.

The court further added that since the biological mother has become a stranger to the girl, it is a question that does she have any right to apply for a visa of the minor child to take her abroad without the permission of her lawful guardian, her adoptive father? The court answered this question in negative and said that Australian High Commission is right in its stand over the objection to the visa.