CHILD ADOPTION IN INDIA: A COMPARATIVE STUDY UNDER HINDU ADOPTION AND MAINTENANCE ACT 1956 (HAMA) AND THE JUVENILE JUSTICE (CARE AND PROTECTION OF CHILDREN) ACT 2015

Abstract

ABSTRACT

There are various religions in India but there is no particular adoption law governing the adoption of all religions. Adoption of child in India was the domain of personal laws under which Hindus were able to adopt under the customary under the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act 1956 (HAMA). While Muslims, Christians, Jews and Parsis do not have their own Personal law governing adoption because of which they cannot adopt a child and give him/her his family name. They can only become the guardian of the child under Guardians and Wards Act, 1890. Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains follow Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956. The Government of India have taken steps to make a uniform law for adoption and enacted the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act in 2000. This law was religion-agnostic and applied to both Hindus and non-Hindus; for Hindus, it existed in parallel to the HAMA. It has since been replaced by the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015, read with allied rules and regulations such as the Adoption Regulations 2017 (the JJ Act). This This paper focuses majorly on the adoption of child under various religions and also look into the major distinction in relation to adoption of children under HAMA and JJ Act 2015. This paper also analyses whether these two parallel Acts are sufficient to cater the need of Child who could be adopted and parents who are willing to adopt or there is a need of Special Uniform Law for exclusively for adoption of Children.

Keywords: Uniform Law, Adoption, Hindu, Religion, Guardian, Personal Law.