The Madhya Pradesh High Court reaffirmed that a legally valid adoption does not rely on registration of the adoption deed and set-aside the state authority’s refusal to grant compassionate appointment to an adopted son on technical grounds alone. This ruling clarifies that technical objections cannot defeat rightful claims arising from lawful adoption.
The Madhya Pradesh High Court reaffirmed that an adoption valid under law does not depend on the registration of the adoption deed, set-aside a state authority’s refusal to grant a compassionate appointment to an adopted son on technical grounds.
The Court emphasized that administrative bodies may not impose requirements that are not found in statute or policy when evaluating claims that arise from a government employee’s death.
The matter arose from a writ petition by Mohit Goud, who challenged an order dated December 10, 2021 denying his claim for compassionate appointment after the death of his adoptive father, a Superior Field Worker in the Malaria Department who died during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The petitioner maintained he had been adopted in 2010 and was wholly dependent on the deceased. Authorities rejected his application because the adoption deed produced had been registered after the employee’s death and because no succession certificate had been provided.
The State argued that the lack of a registered document before death undermined the adoption’s legal validity and warranted refusal of the appointment.
Justice Jai Kumar Pillai found that reasoning legally untenable. He explained that the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956 does not require registration of an adoption deed as a condition for a valid adoption.
The statute focuses on the substantive elements of adoption capacity of the parties, consent, and the actual giving and taking of the child.
The Court observed,
“The statute places absolute primacy on the capacity of the parties… and the actual physical act of ‘giving and taking’ the child,”,
The curt added,
“Nowhere… does the Act prescribe the registration of an adoption deed as a mandatory statutory pre-condition.”
While a registered document may give rise to a presumption in favor of adoption under Section 16, the Court noted that absence of registration does not render a valid adoption illegal, citing settled Supreme Court authority that registration is evidentiary rather than constitutive.
On the facts, the Court found the adoption occurred during the deceased’s lifetime and was later recorded in a notarized deed in 2020; registration of that deed in 2021 after the employee’s death was merely procedural and did not invalidate the earlier adoption.
Interpreting Clause 2.5 of the State’s Compassionate Appointment Policy, which allows adopted children to qualify as dependents if the adoption is legally valid and took place in the employee’s lifetime, the Court held the policy does not demand a registered deed.
Thus, the authorities erred by adding a requirement not present in the policy.
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Criticizing the administrative approach as a mechanical exercise of power based on a flawed legal understanding, the Court stressed that authorities cannot insist on documents such as a registered adoption deed or a succession certificate when neither the statute nor the policy requires them.
The judgment also recalled the effect of adoption under Section 12 of the 1956 Act, which confers on an adopted child the same status as a biological child “for all purposes,” including entitlement to benefits arising from the adoptive parent’s service.
Declaring the rejection legally unsustainable, the Court set aside the impugned order and directed the State to reconsider the petitioner’s application for compassionate appointment within sixty days, treating the adoption as valid and effective during the deceased employee’s lifetime.
Case Title: Mohit Goud v. The State of Madhya Pradesh and Others