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Description
Who can withdraw an order of adoption?
- a parent of a child for whom an adoption order has been made
- the person who was the child’s guardian at the time when the order was made
- the adoptive parent or the natural parents of the child
- with the Minister’s permission, the assistant of the children’s court where the order of adoption was made.
When can you apply for rescission of the order?
- If you are the natural father of the child and the order of adoption had been made despite the fact that you, as the natural parent, should have consented to the adoption, but did not do so. You must give notice of rescission within six months of the date upon which you became aware that an order for the adoption of your child had been made. However, if more than two years have passed since the adoption order had been made, you can no longer give notice of rescission.
- If you are the adoptive parent and fraud, misrepresentation or justus error had played a part in convincing you to adopt the child:
- the adopted child is mentally ill and had already suffered from mental illness at the time when the order of adoption was made or
- the adopted child had suffered from a congenital disorder or a serious injury at the time when the order of adoption was made.
However, you may only apply for the withdrawal of the adoption order if you, either as an individual or as the husband and wife who jointly adopted the child concerned, were ignorant of the child’s mental illness, genetic disorder or injury at the time of the application, in spite of having carefully examined the child at that time.
You must give notice of rescission within six months of the date upon which you became aware of the circumstances surrounding the adoption.
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if you can prove, by giving reasons, that the adoption is not in the best interests of the child. In such case, you must give notice of rescission within two years of the date upon which the order of adoption order was made
- if, at the time of application, the adoptive parent or parents did not qualify for obtaining an order of adoption.
Notice of rescission must be given within two years of the date upon which the order of adoption was made.
If an adoptive parent applies for withdrawal of an order of adoption, the parent must give due notice to the:
- assistant of the relevant children's court
- parent or parents of the adopted child, if they can be found and/or
- person who acted as the guardian of the child before it was adopted, if the child can be found.
If the assistant of the children’s court gives notice of rescission, the rescission, if they can be found, give due notice to the:
- parent or parents of the adopted child
- adoptive parent or parents and/or
- tperson who acted as the guardian of the child before it was adopted.
- The court to which the application is made shall:
- first determine whether the applicant has complied with the requirements
- then afford any person who may be interested in the application an opportunity to be heard
- next consider any relevant evidence (oral or in the form of an affidavit) in support of or in opposition to the application and
- finally withdraw or confirm the order of adoption.
If the court withdraws the order of adoption, it will return the child concerned to the circumstances in which it had lived before the order of adoption was made, provided that the rescission of the order does not affect anything that was lawfully done while the order of adoption was in force.
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