NEW DELHI: A trial court has said that a mother cannot independently give her child up for adoption without the father's consent as such an adoption is "nullity" in the eyes of law.
The court's observations came while hearing a man's petition challenging his estranged wife's plea seeking maintenance for herself and their minor daughter, whom she had allegedly given for adoption.
Additional sessions judge Anuradha Shukla Bhardwaj said even if the woman had given away the child to someone for adoption, the man has the right to challenge the adoption and can take back the minor's custody, but till then he has to maintain his daughter.
The court also said as per the provisions under the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, if the father is alive, he alone has the right to give the child for adoption.
The man, in his revision plea, had challenged a trial court's order directing him to pay interim maintenance to his wife and daughter. The man had said he was not liable to pay maintenance to his minor daughter as she had been given for adoption by his wife. He relied upon the adoption deed executed by the woman in favour of some other person.
The man had also alleged that his wife was living with some other man and was thus not entitled for alimony. The woman, however, did not appear in the court despite summons.
The ASJ, in the order, said the man can request the trial court, where the maintenance petition was being heard, to direct the woman to come along with the child at the time of payment of the maintenance amount. The court also asked the magistrate to consider the man's plea without being influenced by its observations.
"The other allegation regarding the adulterous lifestyle of the woman is a matter of evidence and cannot be the basis of interfering with the order of the trial court having been passed on the basis of material available on record. The revision is dismissed being devoid of any merit," it said
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