Calcutta High Court on Wednesday directed the Children Welfare Committee (CHC) of Bengal to file a report on January 17 on the whereabouts of a five-month-old orphan whom the Children Adoption Resources Authority (CARA) had selected for adoption by a doctor of Maldah Government Hospital and his wife.

Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharya’s order followed a petition by the doctor, Gaurang Biswas, alleging that even after CARA assured him in writing that the male baby had been selected for adoption, the application had been rejected.

Moving the petition on behalf of the physician, advocate Subarata Mookherjee told the court that after deciding to adopt a child, the childless couple — Biswas and his wife Manideepa — had applied before CARA in 2016 by following all the mandatory norms.

“Details about the couple, their various identity cards and income certificates duly endorsed by the principal and photographs were submitted before the department concerned,” the lawyer said.

The lawyer claimed that on April 23 last year, his client received a letter from CARA saying that the baby had been selected for adoption and that the child would be handed over to them by CHC, Howrah unit of CARA.

“CARA had asked the physician to contact the CHC at his office at Salkia in Howrah with their address proof and electricity bill. Accordingly my client went to the organisation on April 29 and submitted the documents. But suddenly on May 5, CARA, through a letter informed him that his application for adoption of child had been cancelled as the documents he had submitted was not adequate enough.”