The Delhi High Court has refused to restore a baby girl’s adoption referral to a Singapore-based couple, because they already have two biological children and the rules allow such couples to adopt only special needs or “hard to place” children. At the same time, it has strongly criticised the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) for its mistakes and given it five directions.
The petitioner, Sahil Gupta, an Indian-origin man living in Singapore, registered as a prospective adoptive parent in December 2020 and had a second son in 2022. The Adoption Regulations, 2022 then came into force, and their home study report expired in December 2023 and was revalidated only in September 2025. In January 2026, CARA referred a three-month-old girl (“Baby K”, classed as a “normal” child) to him, and he accepted her within hours, visited her in India in February and waited for the No Objection Certificate (NOC). On 30 March 2026, the portal suddenly showed his application as “Rejected – Withdrawn”, though he had not withdrawn it, and the child was then referred to another family. CARA said its oversight, and the portal migration, had led it to miss that the couple had two children. Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma held that Regulation 5(7) applies to everyone, including NRIs, and that, relying on the Debarati Nandee and the Supreme Court’s Ankur Gupta rulings, no right to adopt a particular child arises until the District Magistrate passes the final adoption order. The ten-day NOC timeline cannot create a “deemed” NOC, and an expectation created by an error cannot be a legitimate expectation or estoppel against the law. The child was medically “normal” and was not a hard to place child, since she was never left without takers. Though she accepted that the family’s distress was genuine, the court held that the best interest of the child could not be used to bypass eligibility rules. It vacated the interim order and directed CARA to place the child for adoption in accordance with law. It also directed CARA to verify eligibility before every referral, audit profiles changed during the portal migration, process NOCs within the time limit, show accurate portal status, and fix responsibility for the lapses.
Citation: Sahil Gupta v. Union of India & Anr., W.P.(C) 4937/2026, Delhi High Court (Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma), decided on 15.10.2026 | 2026:DHC:9354
Leave a Reply