Uniform Adoption Law

TITLE - “UNIFORM ADOPTION LAWS - THE NEED OF THE HOUR”

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM:

Adoption is the process of transplantation of a son/daughter from his/her biological family, to another family wherein he/she is given up by the biological parents by way of gift. The adopted son/daughter is then taken as being the heir of the new family and acquires all the rights, duties and status there only, and his/her ties with the old family comes to an end. The concept of adoption is recognised only by the Hindu religion. The concept of adoption can be traced back to the Vedic times. The ancient texts of Dattaka Mimamsa, Dattaka Chandrika, Manu, Yagnavalkya and Kautilya etc. refer to this particular concept. Adoption is not an institution alien to Hinduism,

As we know, the laws relating to crime and punishment are uniform same for all the citizens of India, and similar is case when we see the laws related to contracts and other affairs. Although as it is pretty evident the laws relating to family matters are not uniform in India and every religion has its own sets of personal laws governing them. Uniformity has been sought since a very long time in these personal laws so as to do justice to the basic principle of our country which is to treat all the citizens equally, and to do that everyone irrespective of their religion should be governed by the same laws. In this particular case of adoption, the different laws for Hindus and Non Hindus creates a very big emotional problem. The people who are non Hindu’s and want to adopt an orphaned child feel very helpless as legally they cannot be parents to the orphaned child which doesn’t seem fair at all and thus there is a need for uniform adoption laws in

India being signatory to CRC (Convention on the Rights of a Child),uniformity in the adoption laws is very necessary so as to maintain the safety and interests of the orphaned children. The Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956 brought about some major changes to the law of adoption amongst Hindus and has also improved the position of women in this regard. Although it is not fair at all that Muslims, Christians and Parsis cannot legally adopt an orphaned child. One of the major advantages of a uniform civil code is that they will enable women of other religions to adopt just like Hindu women. By implementing a Uniform Civil Code, the status of not just Hindu women but all of Indian women will definitely improve. It should not be mandatory that there should be a set of religious personal laws that govern a person’s life. A secular India needs a uniform civil