CAN ADOPTION LAWS INCORPORATE REVOCABILITY? AN ANALYSIS OF SECTION 15 OF THE HINDU ADOPTION & MAINTENANCE ACT, 1956

Adoption Laws in India constitute a part of various laws ranging from Personal Laws like the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956 to a secular code of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015. Section 15 of the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act states that a valid adoption made under this Section cannot be revoked in any chance. This implies that such adoptions are irreversible in nature and once done, cannot be revoked. Once an adoption is made, the adopted child may face several hardships in the adopted family, causing a violation of his fundamental rights. These hardships may include discrimination of the adopted from the biological child, if any, lack of access to resources, emotional ill-treatment and so on. Due to such hardships and irrevocability of adoptions, the child maybe continues to stay in a perpetually hostile environment which becomes unhealthy. The authors contends that there is a need to incorporate revocable adoptions withing the ambit of Section 15 of the Act and the same can be done by way of an exception clause which may incorporate revocability, by giving power to the judiciary to declare an adoption revoked if needed. The authors have reviewed judicial precedents that support the thesis of revocable adoptions, and research articles The case laws reviewed adjudicate over child welfare principles and lay down its priority over other issues in a family dispute. The authors also suggest solutions facilitating revocability of adoptions so as to award a better protection to adopted children from infringement of their rights.