The woman and her late husband adopted the boy eight years back. RepresentationalA widowed Noida mother has urged the Delhi High Court to move her 14-year-old adopted son into government or private care — without legally ending the adoption. Eight years after she and her late husband adopted the boy, then six years old, from an orphanage in Assam, the woman has said she cannot handle him anymore.The petitioner has said she is now a single mother after her husband died in 2021. The boy, she has told the court, was diagnosed with “mild intellectual disability” earlier this year. The woman’s petition has flagged the boy’s “inappropriate behaviour”, “aggression” and “theft”. His behavioural issues have also led to his expulsion from multiple schools, she has told the court.The Delhi High Court last week sought replies from the Ministry of Women and Child Development, the Central Adoption Resource Authority and the Child Welfare Committee within a week. It will hear the matter next on September 30.According to the petitioner, soon after the adoption, the child “started behaving differently and aggressively”. The couple then thought this might be a reaction due to his shift from Assam to Noida. However, in 2018, after he was admitted to a school, an incident of his inappropriate behaviour with a classmate led to expulsion, the petition says.In 2021, after her husband’s death, the petitioner moved to Aligarh to live with her mother. She admitted her son to a local school, but he was again expelled due to “misbehaviour with the girls in the school”, the petition says.A third incident of misbehaviour with a “female person” was reported to a police station but the complainant did not pursue the matter on the petitioner’s request and considering the boy’s age.The petition said that she soon noticed that her son had started stealing money and valuable items from home and running away. This prompted her to get him medically checked. The examination found that the child is intellectually disabled, exhibiting hypersexual behaviour, the petition says.The petitioner has expressed that “due to (the child’s) hypersexual behaviour… (she) and her old age mother are in constant fear that the (child) will misbehave with any female person”, and also in “constant fear” that her son “can do anything with (her) if she stopped (the child) from stealing money or misbehaving with female person.” The child reportedly becomes “violent when he is not provided money or when he is not able to steal money or valuable belongings of the petitioner”, the petition says.Story continues below this adWith no male member around in the house and two aged women with their own set of ailments requiring medical management, the petitioner has told the court that she is “now helpless to handle” her adoptive son’s custody.The adoption regulations under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act provide for return of the adopted child to the specialised adoption agency, either owing to “disruption” — where the child could not adjust with the prospective adoptive parents, before formal adoption procedure being completed — or “dissolution” — which can be effected following formal adoption, and requires a court order, to annul the adoption deed.Court-ordered dissolutions of adoption are not uncommon. Earlier this year, a Tripura High Court permitted a dissolution of an adoption deed after noting that the adopted child, from Assam, belonged to a “different religion and family background”, and the adoptive parents were tribals from Tripura and senior citizens. “The lifestyle, family background, food habits, language, weather conditions differ and to get adjusted becomes difficult. This Court is of the opinion that the emotional bondage and relationship between the child and the petitioners no longer exists”, the court said, directing for the dissolution. Data shared by CARA in 2020 in response to RTI had shown that nearly 4-5% of children adopted between 2017-19 were returned to the adoption agency.Sohini Ghosh is a Senior Correspondent at The Indian Express. Previously based in Ahmedabad covering Gujarat, she recently moved to the New Delhi bureau, where she primarily covers legal developments at the Delhi High Court Professional Profile Background: An alumna of the Asian College of Journalism (ACJ), she previously worked with ET NOW before joining The Indian Express. Core Beats: Her reporting is currently centered on the Delhi High Court, with a focus on high-profile constitutional disputes, disputes over intellectual property, criminal and civil cases, issues of human rights and regulatory law (especially in the areas of technology and healthcare). Earlier Specialty: In Gujarat, she was known for her rigorous coverage in the beats of crime, law and policy, and social justice issues, including the 2002 riot cases, 2008 serial bomb blast case, 2016 flogging of Dalits in Una, among others. She has extensively covered health in the state, including being part of the team that revealed the segregation of wards at the state’s largest government hospital on lines of faith in April 2020. With Ahmedabad being a UNESCO heritage city, she has widely covered urban development and heritage issues, including the redevelopment of the Sabarmati Ashram Recent Notable Articles (Late 2025) Her recent reporting from the Delhi High Court covers major political, constitutional, corporate, and public-interest legal battles: High-Profile Case Coverage She has extensively covered the various legal battles - including for compensation under the aegis of North East Delhi Riots Claims Commission - pertaining to the 2020 northeast Delhi riots, as well as 1984 anti-Sikh riots. She has also led coverage at the intersection of technology and governance, and its impact on the citizenry, from, and beyond courtrooms — such as the government’s stakeholder consultations for framing AI-Deepfake policy. Signature Style Sohini is recognized for her sustained reporting from courtrooms and beyond. She specialises in breaking down dense legal arguments to make legalese accessible for readers. Her transition from Gujarat to Delhi has seen her expand her coverage on regulatory, corporate and intellectual property law, while maintaining a strong commitment to human rights and lacuna in the criminal justice system. X (Twitter): @thanda_ghosh ... Read More Tags:adoptionCentral Adoption Resource Agency