RESPONDENT: UNION OF INDIA DATE OF JUDGMENT06/02/1984 BHAGWATI, P.N. BHAGWATI, P.N. PATHAK, R.S. SEN, AMARENDRA NATH (J) CITATION: 1984 AIR 469 1984 SCR (2) 795 1984 SCC (2) 244 1984 SCALE (1)159 CITATOR INFO : E 1987 SC 232 (4,5,8) RF 1990 SC1413 (14) RF 1990 SC1480 (52) ACT: Adoption of Children by foreignerInternational adoptionsNormative and Procedural safeguards to be insisted upon so far as a foreigner wishing to take a child in adoption, outlinedConstitution of India, 1950 Articles 15,24 and 39 and Guardian and Wards Act (Act VIII of 1890), Sections 7 to 9 and 11. HEADNOTE: The petitioner, an advocate of the Supreme Court addressed a letter in public interest to the Court, complaining of malpractices indulged in by social organisation and voluntary agencies engaged in the work of offering Indian Children in adoption to foreign parents, the petitioner alleged that not only Indian Children of tender age are under the guise of adoption "exposed to the long horrendous journey to distant foreign countries at great risk to their lives but in cases where they survive and where these children are not placed in the shelter and Relief Houses, they in course of time become beggars or prostitutes for want of proper care from their alleged foster parents." The petitioner, accordingly, sought relief restraining Indian based private agencies "from carrying out further activity of routing children for adoption abroad" and directing the Government of India, the Indian Council of Child Welfare and the Indian Council of Social Welfare to carry out their obligations in the matter of adoption of Indian Children by Foreign parents. Being a public interest litigation, the letter was treated as a writ petition. Disposing of the Writ Petition, after indicating the principles and norms to be observed in giving a Child in adoption to foreign parents, the Court ^ HELD: 1: 1. Every child has a right to love and be loved and to grow up in an atmosphere of love and affection and of moral and material security and this is possible only if the child is brought up in a family. The most congenial environment would, of course, be that of the family of his biological parents. But if for any reason it is not possible for the biological parents or other near relative to look after the child or the child is abandoned and it is either not possible to trace the parents or the parents are not willing to take care of the child, the next best alternative would be to find adoptive parents for the child so that the child can grow up under the loving care and attention of the adoptive parents. The adoptive parents would be the next best substitute for the biological parents. [813EF] 1: 2. When the parents of a child want to give it away in adoption or the child is abandoned and it is considered necessary in the interest of the child 796 to give it in adoption, every effort must be made first to find adoptive parents for it within the country, because such adoption would steer clear of any problems of assimilation of the child in the family of the adoptive parents which might arise on account of cultural, racial or linguistic differences in case of adoption of the child by foreign parents. If it is not possible to find suitable adoptive parents for the child within the country, it may become necessary to give the child in adoption to foreign parents rather than allow the child to grow up in an orphanage or an institution where it will have no family life and no love and affection of parents and quite often, in the socioeconomic conditions prevailing in the country, it might have to lead the life of a destitute, half clad, halfhungry and suffering from malnutrition and illness. [8 4BD] 2: 1. The primary object of giving the child in adoption should be the welfare of the child. Great care has to be exercised in permitting the child to be given in adoption to foreign parents, lest the child may be neglected or abandoned by the adoptive parents in the foreign country or the adoptive parents may not be able to provide to the child a life or moral or material security or the child may be subjected to moral or sexual abuse or forced labour or experimentation for medial or other research and may be placed in a worse situation than that in his own country. [815GH; 816A] 2: 2. Since there is