Rajasthan HC stays adoption by sect Guru raising wider debate
Puja, a former lecturer and Pawan, a builder, voluntarily offered their five month-old-boy for adoption to Rameshwar Dayal but the couple's parents demanded that adoption deed be cancelled as the child would be made a sanyasi or used in tantric rituals.
Can parents give their children for adoption to religious Gurus and organisations?
This is a practice widely prevalent in India in form of adoption, diksha, sanyas, initiation and other rituals.
However, Rajasthan High Court has stayed adoption of a five month-old-boy by Rameshwar Dayal alias Chotte Sarkar, head of a Khandwa based sect with ashrams in several places including Delhi.
The Judge Bela M. Trivedi sat in judgment on Saturday to order that the child be produced before her and then gave its custody back to his parents.
The child was adopted on July 23 by Rameshwar Dayal, who is said to be practicing celibacy and is thus a single parent. Child's parents, Puja, a former lecturer and Pawan, a builder, voluntarily offered the baby for adoption at a ceremony which was attended by senior officials in Khandwa.
The couple has another son who is eight.
Couple's parents protested it and grandfather Rajendra Purohit filed a case before the high court demanding that adoption deed be cancelled as the child would be made a sanyasi or used in tantric rituals.
The adoption law prohibits a Sanyasi from adopting a child. Rameshwar Dayal claimed that he was not a sanyasi. Couple's lawyer Hemant Nahta insisted that court was not empowered to interfere in a valid adoption deed. He said a child was best adopted at the earliest age and there was no restriction on a minimum age for adoption.
The court said it is empowered to ensure that rights of the child were taken care of which were being harmed by his parents. The judge said the court can't be a silent spectator to a child being sent in name of religion far away to be at mercy of a religious Guru. It is a right of a child to be brought up by his family and even father is not allowed custody of a child who is less than five years.
It asked the mother to take custody of the child and allowed parents of the couple to visit him as usual.
However, given this is an interim order of the court, it will be seen how adoption law is finally interpreted for parents right to give child for adoption or diksha versus child's rights to be brought up by his parents.