The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court recently set aside the disqualification of a youth from Gondia from compassionate appointment. The court held that an adoption deed operates from the date of its execution and does not require compulsory registration to be legally valid.
Case Background
Allowing a plea filed by a Gondia resident, a division bench comprising Justices Mukulika Jawalkar and Nandesh Deshpande ruled that the Zilla Parishad's decision to permanently disqualify him and remove his name from the waiting list was legally untenable.
The petitioner applied for compassionate appointment after the death of his adoptive father, a Zilla Parishad teacher who died in service on July 8, 2015. His name was included in the waiting list of eligible candidates from 2016 and remained there until 2023. However, authorities later removed his name, citing that the adoption deed was registered after the employee's death in 2015, rendering him ineligible.
Court's Observations
The bench observed that the adoption of the petitioner was executed on October 24, 2003, and would come into operation from the same date, not from the date when it was subsequently registered on October 14, 2015. The registration of the adoption deed in 2015, after the death of the adoptive father, could not invalidate the earlier lawful adoption.
Rejecting the reasoning of the authorities, the court held that there is no requirement that the document of adoption requires compulsory registration. Under the law, registration is optional and does not determine the validity of adoption. The court further relied on statutory provisions to underline that a registered document operates from the date it would have taken effect even without registration.
Additional Findings
The bench also found merit in the argument that the petitioner's inclusion in the waiting list for several years indicated that authorities earlier accepted his eligibility. This fact was a pointer to the satisfaction being reached by the respondent, the court noted.
Setting aside the impugned decision, the court directed the Zilla Parishad to restore the petitioner's name in the final waiting list in its original position for consideration under compassionate appointment basis.
