Two sisters (twins) abandoned by biological parents. Can both be validly adopted by childless Hindu couple?

The Problem Stated Clearly

The couple is childless. The children are twin sisters who have been abandoned by their biological parents. The question is whether a single Hindu couple can validly adopt both sisters. This requires analysing three independent legal questions: first, who can give the twins in adoption; second, whether the adoptive couple has the capacity and right to adopt both daughters; and third, whether there is any bar to the simultaneous adoption of twins.

Abandonment Enables Guardian to Give in Adoption

The first gateway is Section 9(4) of the Act. Since both biological parents have abandoned the children, the guardian — whether a de facto guardian, the person in charge of an orphanage or shelter home under whose care the twins are placed, or any person having the care of the children — has the power to give them in adoption. The guardian, however, cannot act unilaterally. The prior permission of a competent civil court or district court is indispensable, and no such permission shall be granted unless the court is fully satisfied that the proposed adoption will be for the welfare of the children. It was settled in Shankar Kumar Das v. Supt. Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Hospital, Kalyani (AIR 1996 Cal 264) that abandoned children shall be deemed to be in the custody of the Juvenile Justice Board, and an application for their adoption must proceed through the Board. The court, before granting permission, must ascertain the wishes of the children to the extent possible given their age, and must also ensure that no payment or reward has been received in consideration of the adoption.

The Critical Bar: One Daughter Per Adopter

Here the law draws a line that deserves close attention. Section 11(ii) of the Act lays down that if the adoption is of a daughter, the adoptive father or mother by whom the adoption is made must not have a Hindu daughter or son's daughter — whether by legitimate blood relationship or by adoption — living at the time of adoption. The significance of this for our problem is profound. If the husband adopts the first sister, at the moment he adopts the second sister, he already has an adopted Hindu daughter living. The second adoption would therefore be squarely barred by Section 11(ii) and would be void. The same barrier applies to the wife. As stated plainly in the sources, "a person who has an adopted daughter or the adopted daughter of a son living, cannot adopt a daughter."

This leads to a crucial observation by Mulla's commentary on Section 11: "Simultaneous adoption of two daughters also would be invalid under the Act." The Act permits a person to have one adopted son and one adopted daughter, but not two adopted daughters.

Is There Any Way Out?

The law presents one possible route — but only one. The husband may adopt one daughter and the wife may adopt the other daughter. Under the Act as amended in 2010, both spouses have equal and independent rights to adopt, and a married woman can now adopt with the consent of her husband. Since husband and wife together form the adoptive family, and Section 14(1) provides that where a husband adopts a child, the wife is deemed the adoptive mother, a difficulty arises here too: if the husband adopts the first daughter (with the wife's consent), then the wife is also deemed the adoptive mother of that child. When the wife then seeks to adopt the second daughter, she already has an adopted daughter — and the bar under Section 11(ii) strikes again.

In effect, the structure of the Act does not readily permit even this workaround for a married couple seeking to adopt two daughters simultaneously, precisely because the Act deems both spouses as the adoptive parents of any single adoption made by either of them with the other's consent.

The Welfare Dimension and an Honest Observation

There is a genuine tension here between the letter of the personal law and the paramount welfare of two abandoned children who are twins — individuals with a unique bond of shared birth and shared abandonment. The ideal of keeping siblings together has been recognised at the institutional level: the Supreme Court in Lakshmi Kant Pandey v. Union of India directed that "brothers and sisters and other children who have been cared for as siblings should not be separated by adoption placement except for special reasons." This principle, though articulated in the context of inter-country adoption, reflects a broader welfare consideration.

The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, under Section 56(3), specifically provides that nothing in that Act shall apply to adoptions under the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956. However, where the children are categorised as abandoned, surrender, or orphan children, adoptions may also proceed under the JJ Act and CARA guidelines, which operate on a welfare-based framework rather than the restrictive conditions of personal law. Under those regulations, the bar to adopting two daughters simultaneously does not apply in the same manner, and a childless couple could be considered as prospective adoptive parents for a sibling group.

In Summary

Under the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956, a childless Hindu couple cannot validly adopt both twin sisters through the personal law route, because the Act expressly bars any person — or couple jointly — from adopting more than one daughter. A simultaneous adoption of two daughters is void under Section 11(ii) read with Section 11(v). The route available to this couple lies not under the personal law of adoption but under the CARA-regulated framework of the Juvenile Justice Act, which permits a couple to be considered as adoptive parents for a sibling group as a unit, prioritising the welfare and unity of the abandoned children.