Consent of Estranged Wife Must for Man to Adopt Child: Allahabad High Court

A man must have the consent of even his estranged wife living separately to adopt a child under the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, as long as she has not been divorced, the Allahabad High Court has ruled.

Justice J J Munir gave the ruling while dismissing a plea by the nephew of a late Forest Department official, pleading for a job in his uncle's department on compassionate grounds.

The petitioner, Bhanu Pratap Singh, had claimed in his plea that he had been adopted by his uncle Rajendra Singh in 2001 before his death and after his wife left him and began living separately with the couple having no issue from the marriage.

Bhanu Pratap Singh had claimed employment contending that being the sole dependent of his late uncle, he was entitled to the job as per the provisions the Uttar Pradesh Recruitment of Dependents of Government Servants Dying-in-Harness Rules, 1974.

The petitioner told the court that he had earlier approached the Forest Department for the employment on compassionate grounds but his plea was rejected in 2016 with the Department holding that his adoption was not as per the rules.

The petitioner had moved the high court challenging the Forest Department's order.

The court too dismissed the petition saying the late government official's wife had not been divorced till his death and she was still his wife, though estranged and living separately.

Her consent was necessary for the late government official to adopt the petitioner.

"The provisions make it imperative for a Hindu male to secure his wife's consent to an adoption that he makes, unless she has completely and finally renounced the world, or has ceased to be a Hindu, or has been declared by a court of competent jurisdiction to be of unsound mind," the court said.

"There is no doubt that Phulmati was a wife living until the death of late Rajendra Singh. The two were never divorced, howsoever, estranged they might have been, the court said.