The Child Adoption Bill 2011 is finally endorsed by the parliament today. The discussion went smooth this time as the clauses were worked out by the joint committee. There were 26 sections on which the two Houses could not come to a consensus during the deliberation in the past sessions.
The Sections 29 and 30 of the Bill drew much argument among the members. The two sections mainly states about adopting their own relatives. The sections were deleted from the Bill by the joint committee. However, some of the members disagreed stating that it has been and will be a good practice of raising a child by the relatives in the absence of the parents and their inability to raise a child.
The Health Minister, Zangley Dukpa, said that the sections should be retained since the relatives are more likely to take good care even if they are financially unsound than other adopters. Similar views were also expressed by his colleagues.
The House, however, resolved as per the draft of the joint committee. The draft states that ‘a Bhutanese Citizen who is of good moral character, financially secured, not convicted of a crime, capable to support and care the child and who is at least 30 years of age and the age difference between the adoptive parent and the child to be adopted shall be at least 15 years may apply for the adoption a child’.
The inheritance right of a child was also deliberated. It was resolved that the adopted child shall have the right of inheritance of property of the adopting parent in accordance with the inheritance law. The Bill was passed with 67 out of 68 Members present voting in favour of the Bill.
The Bill was first introduced in National Council during the 6th session. However, the Bill could not get endorsed in the last session due to strong arguments between the parliamentarians.
Meanwhile, the House also deliberated on the Sales Tax, Customs and Excise Duty (Amendment) Bill of Bhutan 2011. The deliberation will continue tomorrow.
