Bombay high court may dismiss Haynes’s plea

It’s been 20 months since Jennifer Haynes, 28, saw her children last and now she has been left wondering how much longer.

The Bombay high court on Monday indicated it was likely to dismiss the petition filed by Haynes seeking de-registration of adoption agencies that sent her to the US in 1989 without, she alleged, following proper procedure. The judges have reserved their order in the case.

Haynes, now a mother of two, was adopted by US nationals George and Melissa Hancox in 1989. She was deported by US immigration authorities in July 2008 as her citizenship formalities were not completed at the time of her adoption.

After hearing the arguments, justice FI Rebello remarked, “The grievance now is not that of adoption but of citizenship.” The court had earlier directed Haynes to apply to the US embassy on grounds of humanitarian parole. Additional solicitor general DJ Khambata said the Centre would support her application.

Haynes’s advocate Pradeep Havnur urged the court to order the de-registration of the adoption agency Americans for International Aid and Adoption (AIAA) stating that they had not followed up Haynes’s case.

Havnur also told the court that the Indian Kuanyin Charitable Trust sent Haynes to US without appropriate consent from her parents. “They were told that she would return rich and educated. It is a case of kidnapping a child,” Havnur said.

The court, however, observed that Haynes had not applied for US citizenship and continued to live in the US as a child of her adoptive parents.