New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed its discontent after learning that many states and union territories (UTs) have failed to set up Specialised Adoption Agencies (SAA), saying the court is being compelled to take coercive proceedings against them.
A bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud directed the chief secretaries of states and UTs should set up SAA by August 30, and if they fail, then the court would initiate contempt of court proceedings against them. The apex court was hearing a petition to simplify the adoption process in the country.
Citing an order passed by the court on November 20 last year, the bench said it had given time to states and UTs to set up SAAs by January 31, 2024, and another opportunity was granted to comply with the court order on March 15, 2024.
The bench, after examining the affidavit filed by the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development, said that only 370 out of 760 districts have functional SAAs.
The apex court termed the situation alarming after noting that many states -- Punjab, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Nagaland -- do not have SAAs in even half the number of districts, and stressed that it had passed the order in November last year.
The bench, also comprising justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said as per the affidavit the states and UTs are in default and, added that it had cautioned that if the concerned authorities fail to comply with the directions, then the court would be constrained to take recourse to coercive proceeding.
“We are compelled to now take coercive proceedings against the state governments and UTs since, despite repeated opportunities, the SAAs have not been set up in all the districts", said the bench.
The bench, in its order, said: “We accordingly direct that the chief secretaries of all the states/UTs as reflected in the affidavit shall file compliance affidavits on or before August 30, 2024”. “Failing which they shall remain personally present before this court on September 2, 2024, to explain why they should not be proceeded against in the exercise of the contempt jurisdiction”, said the bench.
The bench said all the states and UTs shall file their affidavits explaining whether the timelines which are stipulated in the regulations for facilitating the process of adoption are being duly complied and it shall also disclose data on the actual time which is being taken for completing the process.
Citing Centre’s affidavit, the apex court said that during the financial year 2023-24, 13,467 registrations have taken place across the country and added that though number of registrations have been steadily on the rise, there is yet a serious gap in the registration and actual number of adoptions.
The apex court stressed that the infrastructure which has been envisaged in the law should be duly upgraded and asked the states to inform it what steps have been taken regarding it.
