Greeva Garg –
Published on: August 20, 2021, at 15:07 IST
The Karnataka High Court has issued guidelines for Child Welfare Committees (CWCs) on how to proceed to hold inquiry and counselling when parents or guardians want to surrender their children on being unable to look after them for physical, emotional, and social factors beyond their control, as per the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.
The High Court took this major step ensuring clarity in the law to protect children, in regard to the PIL filed by Letzkit Foundation, Bengaluru, before the Court related to an unfortunate incident of abandoning of a two-week-old child.
A division bench comprising of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice NS Sanjay Gowda passed the order stating that, “CWCs should conduct proper identification of the parents of such children. The CWCs should ensure they meet the parents individually and collectively in a bid to ascertain facts related to the surrender. Further, the parents should be identified if they are biological parents to the child. While physical, emotional, and social factors that are beyond the parents’ control to take care of the children are important, a straightjacket formula cannot be used to determine the same as well.”
Further, the High Court directed the State Government to frame the rules in pursuance to the matter within three months till which the guidelines will be in force for CWCs.
PIL was filed in need of protection of new born baby child whose parents were in a live-in-relationship and left him at one of their friend’s houses, abandoning as unwanted child. The person at whose house couple left the child, intimated the police.
In earlier proceedings, the High Court directed the unmarried couple to take care of their baby but they declined the order.
The parents were asked to attend counselling sessions organised by CWC. The final decision on the surrender of child was taken after unmarried couple denied their duties towards the child.
The child is now being taken care in an NGO. CWC, after process of surrender has also issued a certificate that the child can be adopted.