New Delhi:
The Supreme Court on Wednesday permitted an American couple to adopt a 10-year-old child with slow learning capabilities after an expert committee of doctors told the court that the prospective parents were eminently suited for adopting the child.
The expert committee in its report told the court that the prospective parents, Craig Allen Coates and Cynthia Ann Coates, were financially and emotionally sound and the child would be extremely comfortable with them.
The expert committee was appointed by the apex court bench of Justice Markandey Katju and Justice TS Thakur following a suggestion by the Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium during the course of the last hearing on August 30. Subramanium was amicus curiae in the case.
The suggestion came in the wake of the court expressing some reservation vis-à-vis welfare of the child as the prospective parents already had three children.
The expert committee was mandated to speak to the mother and the child before giving its opinion to the court.
Earlier, the high court and Guardianship Court had rejected Coates' plea for the adoption of Anil. The adoption procedure was started on June 19, 2006, when Cynthia, on her and her husband's behalf, gave in writing that she was willing to adopt a slow learner child.
The court was told that the Coates couple knew what would be required of them once they adopt Anil.
Cynthia, the court was told, knew how to nurture such children as her husband too was a slow learner by birth and at the time of their marriage Cynthia knew about it and took good care of him.
The court was told that Coates' three children were all grown up and were living independently and now they wanted to bring up a child who was a slow learner.
In the intricate process of adoption, Cynthia had to submit a sterility letter saying that she was not able to have a biological child.
The M/S Illien Adoption International Agency - sponsoring agency in USA - gave an undertaking that Coates would adopt the child within two years and if there was any disruption then the agency would take care of the child till it found a "suitable and qualified" alternative family.
Anil, who will soon have the Coates to care of him, was born Oct 19, 1999, and was found abandoned by police of the Okhla Police Station. He was handed over to a placement agency Welfare Home for Children.