District Magistrates to be made responsible for adoption

New Delhi, July 18: The Centre is all set to bring in an amendment to the Juvenile Justice Act in a bid to make the district magistrate as the competent officer to approve adoptions. Under the current provision, the power is with the civil court.

The move is being considered in order to avoid long delays in courts and also to expedite adoptions. At a meeting, Union Minister, Maneka Gandhi said that an amendment to the act would be brought in to make the DM the competent officer instead of the civil courts.

The civil courts are already burdened with various other cases as a result of which the adoption procedure remains pending. This leads to couples looking for other means of adoption as a result of which the illegality creeps in.

It may be recalled that on Monday, Maneka Gandhi had directed the state governments to inspect all the childcare homes run by the Mother Teresa Foundation, Missionaries of Charity. The directive came in the wake of the police busting a baby racket. Four babies sold off illegally were rescued by the police.