Punishments Under Adoption Law

You may be punished if you do the following, regardless of the law under which you have adopted a child:

Illegally taking a child to a foreign country

• If you take or send a child to a foreign country, or arrange for transferring the child to a person in a foreign country, without a valid order from the Court,¹ then you can be punished with jail time of up to 3 years and/or a fine of Rs. 1 lakh. 

Abandoning/Neglecting/Abusing the Child

• If you, as the caretaker/parent of a child under 12 years of age, abandon the child intentionally in any place to wholly abandon the child, you will be punished with jail time of up to 7 years and/or a fine.² 
• If you, as the caretaker/parent of a child, assault, abandon, abuse, expose or willfully neglect the child³ or cause this to occur, in a manner likely to cause him/her child unnecessary mental or physical suffering, you will be punished with jail time of up to 3 years and/or a fine of Rs. 1 lakh.  If such cruelty makes the child physically incapacitated or mentally ill or renders him/her mentally unfit to perform regular tasks or risks his life, you can be punished with jail time between 3 and 10 years and a fine of Rs. 5 lakhs. 

Under the non-religious law on adoption,⁴ you will be punished if you:

• Give/receive any orphan, abandoned or surrendered child, for the purpose of adoption without following the provisions of the JJ Act.⁵ The punishment  for this is jail time up to 3 years and/or a fine of Rs. 1 lakh.  Where the offence is committed by a recognized adoption agency, in addition to the above punishment, the registration of the agency and its recognition shall also be withdrawn for at least one year.

Under the Hindu law on adoption,⁶ you will be punished if you:

Receive/give a payment or other reward in return for an adoption.⁷ For this, the punishment is jail time of up to 6 months and/or a fine, after authorization from the State Government.

1. Section 56(5), Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.[↩]
2. Section 317, Indian Penal Code, 1860.[↩]
3. Section 75, Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.[↩]
4. Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.[↩]
5. Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.[↩]
6. Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956.[↩]
7. Section 17, Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956.[↩]