# Calcutta High Court Quashes Adoption, Faults CWC for Skipping Inquiry 2026-08-12T16:19:29+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet The Calcutta High Court has set aside a Child Welfare Committee (CWC) order that declared a newborn legally free for adoption, holding that the Committee failed to conduct a mandatory inquiry under the Juvenile Justice Act. Justice Krishna Rao directed the adoptive parents to surrender the child to the CWC and ordered a fresh inquiry within four weeks, with a hearing for the biological parents. The case dates to March 2024, when a baby with injuries was found near a drain in Kolkata. A man, Ritam Das, claimed to be the biological father, and Asmita Poddar said she was the mother. Despite a DNA test confirming both as parents, the CWC declared the child abandoned and the parents 'incapacitated'. The High Court noted police found Poddar's deceased mother had dropped the baby, and that the CWC ignored the DNA report and did not serve individual notices. ## Coverage - livelaw.in Tags: adoption, Calcutta High Court, CWC, DNA test, Juvenile Justice Act, Kolkata Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/calcutta-high-court-quashes-adoption-faults-cwc-for-skipping-inquiry/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/calcutta-high-court-quashes-adoption-faults-cwc-for-skipping-inquiry/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes.