Legal Question in Family Law in India

1) As per MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT, New Delhi, NOTIFICATION, the 17th July, 2015, on Guidelines Governing Adoption of Children, 2015, effective from the 1st day of August,2015 are as under.

2) An adoptive parent should be medically fit and financially able to care for a child. A person wishing to adopt a child must be at least 21 years old. There is no legal upper age limit for parents but most adoptive agencies set their own benchmarks with regard to age. For a child who is less than a year old, the adoptive parents can have a maximum combined age of 90 years. Also, neither parent must be older than 45 years.

3) In the case of adoption of older children, the age of the parents may be relaxed accordingly. For example, for a one-year-old child, the age limit is 46 years, for a two-year-old child, it is 47 years and so on. The upper age limit for an adopted child is 12 years while for an adoptive parent it is 55 years. In the case of an adopted child with special needs, the age limit may be relaxed marginally by the state government, depending on the evaluation of the case. However, in all cases, the age of the parent cannot exceed 55 years.

4) The adoption of a child whose age is upto 18 years is only eligible for adoption.