Bhuvana Marni
Published on: November 2, 2022 at 19:02 IST
Though a child’s biological parents are still alive, even if they were raised in an orphanage, they cannot be considered “orphans” as that term is defined under Section 2(42) of the Juvenile Justice Care and Act, 2015, the Bombay High Court ruled.
“X and Y would not be termed as ‘orphan’ as defined under Section 2(42) of the Act, 2015 in as much as their biological mothers are alive.”
However, the Committee under the JJ Act was asked by the Justices SV Gangapurwala and RN Laddha to determine whether the petitioners’ children qualify as “abandoned children” under Section 2(1) of the Act.
The court was debating a request made by “The Nest India Foundation,” which operates a daycare centre. They asked for guidelines so that their application to declare two daughters orphans might be processed quickly.
In addition to considering the girls for a 1% horizontal reservation quota throughout the counselling and admission process for the undergraduate courses in health sciences, the application requested a provisional orphan certificate in the interim.
While the girls’ original parents are still alive, according to petitioners’ attorney Abhinav Chandrachud, they have lived in the daycare facility since they were 4 and 5. Their moms hadn’t paid the girls many visits. Nothing was stopping them from being listed as orphans, but at the very least, they might be listed as abandoned children and granted benefits under the restricted category.
“There would not be any reason for not applying the reservation of ‘orphan’ to ‘abandoned child’. It is submitted that the phrase ‘orphan’ will have to be given a broader meaning and not a restricted meaning,” the court noted in its order.
Poornima Kantharia, a government pleader, was against relief.
First, she said that the two girls could not be described as abandoned children because the institution has repeatedly been notified that it cannot manage the Center.
Second, the girls’ biological mothers are still alive, thus they cannot be considered “orphans.” Even without the necessary statement that the girls were abandoned, the petitioners lack the requisite declaration.
The girls have been at the daycare facility since 2008, according to the court.
They would also need to be recognised as orphans by a Competent Committee because they could not be recognised as such.
“For a child to be an ‘abandoned child’ within the meaning of Act, 2015, the Child should be deserted by his/her biological or adoptive parents or guardian and is required to be declared as ‘abandoned child’ by the Committee after inquiry. Today, we do not have any declaration of a Competent Committee declaring these two girls as ‘abandoned child’.”
The petitioner’s request for a provisional orphan certificate was denied by the bench as a result of the aforementioned.
However, it gave them the liberty to contact the competent authority by October 28, 2022, and the committee had until November 14 to decide on their application.
The matter will be listed the following day.
Case Title: The Nest India Foundation Versus The State of Maharashtra & Ors.