JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION, INDIA VOL. 21, 2022 ethnic, and national groups as well.1 For a long time, it has been practised among communities to facilitate a childless couple to have a child, especially son, for the continuation of family lineage, succession, to perform some obligations or for spiritual purposes, etc. However, with the passage of time, adoptions have become child centric as also stated in the report on the inter-country adoption that ‘the paramount consideration and well-being of child’ is the core subject matter of adoption. The inter-country adoption has not been practised to a great extent in India due to the socio-economic backwardness of the society and legal technicalities, and it has always been acknowledged as a close family matter. Therefore, children who have been given in adoption in foreign countries were found to be exploited by being employed in domestic services and in child trafficking. Inter-country is the most controversial, complex and sensitive aspect of adoption that involves the principles and procedures over citizenship, migration, socio-economic status of the adopting parents, community and cultures of the society of the adoptive parents and, therefore, it had become necessary to regulate it by legislative measures and achieving streamlined collaboration between qualified and authorised state and responsible social authorities. The same approach has been followed and due considerations has been given to the Public and Private International Laws. The Guardians and Wards Act, 1890, and Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956, and international instruments related therewith for formulation of laws to regulate such adoptions as reported2 by CARA.3 The Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in respect of inter-country adoption is the grundnorm that lays down provision for protection of children and their families against the risks of illegal, irregular, premature or illprepared adoptions abroad.4 This Convention, operating through a system of national central authorities, reinforces the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Article 21) and seeks to ensure that inter-country adoptions are made in the best interests of the child and with respect to his or her Fundamental Rights and to prevent the abduction, the sale of, children. The Hague Convention promotes private and independent adoptions, inter country adoptions through competent authorities, and prospective, eligibility and suitability of adoptive parents.5 Child adoption was considered as an emotional act for both parties, but 1 2 3 4 5 72 K. March & C. Miall, “Adoption as a Family Form,” 49(4) Family Relations 2000 available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/585830 (Visited on October 5, 2022). Central Adoption Resource Authority Report: Bench Book for Adoption (2017). The Law Commission of India, 153th Report on Inter-Country Adoption (1994). The Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Inter-country Adoption (1993). Satyajeet A. Desai, Mulla, Hindu Law, Lexis Nexis 269 (2011).