Calcutta High Court orders child welfare board to return toddler to caretakers
The Calcutta High Court ruled that the Child Welfare Committee must hand a three-year-old back to the couple who have cared for him since birth, noting the board lacked legal authority to keep him.
The child, born at about 29 weeks and weighing 1.68 kg, was placed with a couple immediately after leaving the special newborn care unit of M R Bangur Hospital in Kolkata. In April 2023 the parties signed a notarised adoption deed, but the adoption process was not completed under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015. When hospital officials advised the couple to approach the Child Welfare Committee for formalities, the committee seized custody and refused to return the boy.
Justice Krishna Rao held that the committee had no jurisdiction because the child was neither orphaned nor abandoned and did not meet the definition of a child in need of care and protection. Consequently, the court ordered the committee to return the child by 4 pm on September 18, 2026, and directed the District Legal Services Committee to monitor his welfare. The couple must now apply to a competent court for a legal declaration of adoption.
