Child Welfare Committee — Informal Adoption · 17 September 2026
Aparna Das & Anr. v. State of West Bengal & Ors.: Calcutta High Court Directs CWC to Return a Child Given Voluntarily to Caregivers, With Welfare Monitoring
High Court at Calcutta · WPA No. 13525 of 2026
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A child born prematurely in February 2023 was handed over by his biological parents to the petitioners on the day of birth, and a notarised but unregistered adoption deed was later executed. The petitioners cared for him from birth. When they approached the hospital for a birth certificate to seek school admission, they were told to approach the Child Welfare Committee, South 24 Parganas, and after they did so on 18 February 2026 the Committee took custody of the child and did not return him. The petitioners said there was no allegation of abuse or neglect. The State said that adoptions must follow the Juvenile Justice Act and the Adoption Regulations, 2022, that no declaration of the child being free for adoption, Home Study Report, matching or judicial adoption order existed, and that a notarised deed cannot give legal recognition.
Justice Krishna Rao agreed the statutory procedure had not been followed and that a notarised deed gives the petitioners no legal right to custody as adoptive parents. He held, however, that the CWC could not assume custody merely because the procedure was not followed, as the child was neither an orphan nor abandoned and so not a child in need of care and protection. He directed the CWC to return the child, and directed the Member Secretary of the District Legal Services Committee, South 24 Parganas, to obtain quarterly reports on the child's welfare from December 2026, with liberty to depute a child welfare expert to inspect the home.
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