Calcutta HC orders CWC to return 3-year-old to couple despite adoption lapse
The Calcutta High Court has ordered a Child Welfare Committee to return a three-year-old child to the couple who raised him since birth. The court ruled that the committee lacked legal grounds to seize the child despite the couple's failure to follow formal adoption procedures.
Why it matters
The case underscores the legal complexities and potential bureaucratic pitfalls in private adoption processes within India's regulatory framework.
NEW DELHI: The Calcutta high court has directed a Child Welfare Committee to return a three-year-old child to the couple who had been caring for him since birth, holding that the committee had no legal basis to take custody of the child. The court in a judgment delivered on September 17, 2026, also directed the couple to approach the appropriate court to establish their legal status as the child’s adoptive parents.Why did the Child Welfare Committee take custody of the child?According to the court order, the child was born prematurely in February 2023 at M R Bangur Hospital, Kolkata. He was born at around 29 weeks and weighed about 1.68 kg. He remained in the hospital’s special newborn care unit for about 25 days.The child’s biological parents handed him over to the petitioners on the day he was discharged from hospital.
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