Author:
Publication: The Deccan Chronicle
Date: October 28, 2005
In a slap on the face of adoption agencies
resorting to child trafficking in the name of inter-country adoptions, the
Supreme Court on Thursday directed the authorities concerned to ensure that
"behind the mask of social service or upliftment, the evil design of
child trafficking is not lurking."
A division bench of Supreme Court comprising
Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice Arun Kumar, while upholding the judgement
of the High Court and the Secunderabad family Court, not allowing the inter-country
adoption of a five-year-old girl child brought up by St. Theresa's Tender
Loving Care Home (TLCH), Erragadda, expressed concern over the menace of child
trafficking through inter-country adoption. It asked the government to rise
to the occasion and prevent such trafficking. "The orders passed by the
High Court and the Family Court in Secunderabad did not suffer from any infirmity
to warrant interference," the division bench said.
The petition of TLCH was dismissed by the
High Court as the inquiry by the CID had reported that the child was being
given to the foreign nationals on the basis of fake and fabricated documents.
The SC held that it is the duty of the State to ensure a safe roof over an
abandoned child.
The TLCH had been resorting to inter-country
adoptions for quite some, till its licence was revoked in 2001, after the
exposure of adoption scandals. The adoption racket of TLCH was exposed in
these columns consistently, including the sensational case of four-year-old
Hasina, who was proposed to be given on adoption to an American couple - John
Clements and Sharon Van Epps - by TLCH.
The family court refused permission for adoption
on the grounds that the relinquishment documents submitted by the TLCH were
fake and fabricated. The TLCH then involved the High Court and later Supreme
Court, but everywhere, it had lost the case. The TLCH was also recently in
the news with the High Court convicting its chief Sister Tressa Maria for
six months in the child trafficking case.
Like TLCH, a number of institutions such as
John Abraham Memorial Bethany Home, Tandur, Precious Moments, Action for Social
Development, Sparsh and Radhakrishna Home were in the dock for undertaking
illegal inter-country adoptions. President of Gramya Resource Centre, Dr Rukmini
Rao, who has been fighting against child trafficking welcomed the judgement.
"It has been proved time and again that these agencies have been procuring
children from tribals by paying Rs 500 or Rs 1,000 and selling them to foreign
nationals at US $ 10,000 each" Ms Rukmini said.
Human Rights activist K. Balagopal, who fought
the cases against TLCH, said adoption case pertaining to a batch of 13 children
were pending in the SC and Thursday's judgement could be one among them.