The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed an American couple to adopt a 10-year-old dyslexic child after a committee of experts of doctors told the apex court that the prospective parents were capable of adopting the child.
While allowing the US couple — Craig Allen Coates and his wife Cynthia Ann Coates — to adopt the child, a bench comprising Justices Markandey Katju and T.S. Thakur asked the Centre to constitute a committee to decide in future on such inter-country adoptions, particularly in cases of children with such disabilities.
The Supreme Court passed the order after the expert committee told it that the prospective parents were financially sound and the dyslexic child would be extremely comfortable with them.
The apex court, while setting aside the earlier order of a district judge and the Delhi high court, asked the couple to take the child along with them to the United States.
Earlier, the Guardianship Court had rejected Coates’ plea for adopting the 10-year-old dyslexic Indian child.
Similarly, the Delhi high court had on August 31, 2009 rejected the plea of a cerebral palsy-afflicted Coates, and his wife, residents of Winnebago, United States, to adopt the minor Indian after holding that the couple, already having two sons and a daughters, intended to exploit him as a domestic help.
Aggrieved by the Delhi high court and district court orders, Craig Allen Coates and his wife Cynthia Ann Coates challenged it in the apex court through their lawyer M.N. Krishmani.
A four-member committee of psychiatric experts headed by Professor Rajat Ray, head of the Department of Psychiatry, AIIMS, interviewed Cynthia Coates and the child and submitted a report to the Supreme Court that the minor could get the best emotional support from the couple.