The dream of a US couple has turned into reality as a Delhi court allowed them to adopt a girl child from India. The couple has a biological son from the wedlock and due to medical problems their chances of having second biological child are remote. The US couple was keen to have a sister for their four-year-old son.
The US couple — Jason Keith Jones and Jennifer Jones — got married in 2000 and were blessed with a son in 2006.
The court allowed the couple to adopt six-year-old Pooja (name changed) who was found abandoned by the police at a railway station.
After medical examination it was assessed that Pooja was born on January 2005 and she was allegedly abandoned at the New Delhi Railway Station in 2008. The officials handed the custody of the child to SOS Children’s Villages of India.
Surekha Pawar, senior social worker of Children’s Villages testified that the institution made every attempt to place the girl in an Indian family but no suitable family came forward to adopt the child and finally Co-ordinating Voluntary Adoption Resource Agency cleared the child for foreign adoption.
After going through the plea of the US couple, district judge Rakesh Kapoor said, “I allow the petition and appoint petitioners (Jason and Jennifer) as guardians of the minor female child.”
The judge granted the custody of the girl child to the US couple, after hearing that Jason works as an independent urban planner contractor and draws a salary of $1,25,000 and his wife is working as a staff nurse in O’Connor Hospital and her income is $72 per hour.
“It will be in the welfare of the minor female child if the prayer of the petitioners is allowed,” said the district judge.
The court also directed the petitioners to execute a surety bond of `5,00,000 with an undertaking to produce the child before it as and when required.