By Kawanpreet Kaur 

The Supreme Court expressed disappointment at the indifference of the states to its direction for creation of a specialised adoption agency (SAA) in each of the country’s 760 districts by Jan 31. The Court threatened initiation of contempt proceedings against chief secretaries of defaulting states if the needful was not done by Aug 30. The ASG pointed out that SAAs have not been set up in 370 districts. States which did not have SAAs in more than 50% of their districts were Delhi, UP, Punjab, Telangana, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Nagaland and Uttarakhand. Chandigarh, Goa, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Kerala had fully complied with the SC’s direction. The Court directed chief secretaries of all defaulting states and UTs to file compliance affidavits on or before Aug 30, failing which they shall remain present personally before the SC to explain why contempt of court proceedings be not initiated against them. It was also stated by the ASG that since the intervention of the court, the process has picked up and the Central Adoption Resource Agency (CARA) has achieved a record 4,029 adoptions by couples. (The Temple of Healing vs. Union of India – Writ Petition (Civil) No. 1003/2021)  

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