ADOPTION LAWS: CHALLENGES CONCERNING PROCEDURE FROM HUMAN RIGHTS PERSPECTIVE later exploitation started. The customary practices of adoption in India are placed under the legal regulation to prevent the misuse and an attempt to reduce the gender biases. 1.1 Evolution and Development of Adoption Adoption is the creature of customs among Hindus. The institution of adoption is social and customary. Adoption seems, originally, to have been preferred for spiritual motives rather than secular. The act of adoption transfers all parental rights, responsibilities and privileges permanently from biological parents to the adoptive parents of child. The whole Hindu adoption law has evolved from the texts of Manu, Vasishtha, Banddhyayana, Saanaka and Sakala. The ancient Hindu law recognised twelve kinds of sons including five kinds of adopted sons. The modern Hindu law recognised the adoption of the legitimate son (Aurasa) begotten by the man himself on the lawfully wedded wife. Daughters were not the subject matter of adoption because they were not qualified to perform the religious ceremonies, but some Hindu texts mentioned about the adoption of the daughter also. This is supported by the principle of giving daughter in marriage that is known as kanyadan and a son given in adoption, is called putradana.6 After looking at the purpose of adoption, it would seem that an unmarried man was not recognised eligible for adopting a son.7 The existence of a son or grandson made an adoption not only needless, but illegal. If a couple loses his son by reason of conversion to another religion or even becoming a sanyasi, the gap so created may be filled in by adoption. One of the most essential conditions of a person’s capacity to adopt is that he should be sonless and that only a Hindu child can be taken in adoption. The institution of adoption was used to be a confidential and private arrangement amongst family members guided by the patriarchal mores of society in which children from extended families were adopted, therefore, establishing a kinship arrangement. There were no major concerns as to the welfare of children and it was based on a parent centric approach with the father having unrestricted power over the child. Manu has also spoken about it in following words, “By a son, a man obtains victory over all people, by a son’s son, he enjoys immortality and afterwards by the son of a grandson, he reaches the solar abode.”8 Similarly, according to ‘Vedas’, a man blessed with a son is entitled to endless heavenly bliss and ‘Dharamshastra of Baudhayana’ also stipulates 6 7 8 Dinshah Fardunji Mulla, Principles of Hindu Law, Creative Media Partners, 309 (2013) Surendra Keshav v. Doorga Sundari Dassee, (1920) L. R. 19 I. A. 108 Sir W.H. Rattigan, The Hindu Law of Adoption, Oxford University Press, 1873. 73