JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION, INDIA VOL. 21, 2022 of adoptive parents, matching parents with the child, and the acceptance of the child in a different community and culture”, and to ensure the best interest of child, legal requirements of both countries with respect to adoption must be satisfied. The Hon’ble Division bench then laid down guidelines such as thorough investigation into the economic status and social conditions of the family, questions of health and psychological preparedness for adoption, the child’s acceptance within the community must be done; periodical report pertaining to the maintenance and well-being of the child in the hands of the adoptive parents; the courts must ensure that the adoption is legally valid under the laws of both the countries and that the child should be able to immigrate to that country and also obtain the nationality of the parents, etc. It further stressed that on failure to achieve compliance of such guidelines, the “end result shall be either an abortive adoption having no validity in either country or a limping adoption, i.e., an adoption recognised in one country but having no validity in another, leaving the adopted child in a helpless state.”24 The gravity of problems associated with and the malpractices performed by adoption agencies and social organisations by offering Indian children to foreigners was put to notice again in Laxmi Kant Pandey v. Union of India,25 and directives were issued to the Government of India, the Indian Council of Social Welfare and the Indian Council of Child Welfare to carry out their obligations in the matter of adoption of Indian children by such parents. The enormous guidelines and detailed procedure to be followed by adoption agencies were laid down on the basis of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989, Convention on the Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Inter-country Adoptions, 1993 and the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890.26 Hon’ble Justice P.N. Bhagwati while elaborating upon the necessity of giving child in adoption, stressed upon the fact that – First, efforts shall be made to search for prospective adoptive parents within the country so that it would be easy for the child to adjust unlike in case of foreign parents where problems might arise due to cultural, racial or linguistic differences. However, if it seems impossible to find former ones then instead of putting such child in an institution or orphanage that lacks love, affection and warmth of a family, later ones should be preferred with utmost care and caution for best interest of child.27 It was also 24 25 26 27 78 Ibid, Para 9 1987 AIR 232 (1915) 17 BOMLR 527 Ibid, Para 8,9