The Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act received the assent of the President on 21st December, 1956, and came into operation on that date.
(1) The Act is undoubtedly a progressive measure. It will enable a person to adopt a daughter also if he so desires. (2) It is an enabling measure and does not emphatically interfere with the religious beliefs of our people in any way. (3) For purposes of adoption, whether of a son or a daughter, the consent of the wife will also be necessary. This is as it should be. (4) As women have under the Hindu Law of Succession an absolute estate, widows will be permitted to adopt a chief without the permission of their husbands.
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(5) An adoption will not date back to the time of their husband’s death. (6) One significant feature of the Act is that it will be possible for a person to adopt a child irrespective of his caste. (7) The maximum age for adoption has been fixed at fifteen but customs which enable a married person to be adopted in certain communities have not been interfered with.
It would have been better if the maximum age for adoption had been fixed at even a lower figure for we think it desirable that the adopted child should get assimilated in the family of his adoption. (8) The performance of dattak homan, a religious ceremony is no more necessary. A simple ceremony of giving and taking is only necessary. (Ranjit Kumar Jain v. Kamal Kumar Choudhry, A.I.R. 1982 Cal 493). (9) Provisions relating to registration etc. has been made.
(10)The provisions regarding maintenance make no striking Departure from the existing law. The quantum of maintenance will be fixed in cases of dispute by Courts in accordance with principles which have come to be well established by judicial decisions so far.
The illegitimate child has been given a right of maintenance which is very different from a right of inheritance. Thus the provisions regarding the maintenance for illegitimate children are in accordance with the existing Hindu Law and should be acceptable even to orthodox opinion.