Jaipur: The Rajasthan High Court has dismissed a habeas corpus petition filed by the biological parents of a 4-year-old boy, seeking the return of their son from the custody of an IPS officer and his wife.The decision, uploaded Tuesday and handed down by a division bench comprising Justice Inderjeet Singh and Justice Bhuwan Goyal, concluded that the child’s custody cannot currently be described as illegal and directed that any dispute regarding his adoption be resolved in a competent civil court.The case arose from the habeas corpus petition submitted by Sidharth Gupta and Sakshi Gupta, residents of Agra, who argued that the child was entrusted to Shamistha Gupta, Sidharth’s sister and IPS officer Manish Agarwal’s wife, for a temporary period of 20 days while she received IVF treatment. Agarwal is currently posted as SP, Rules, at the PHQ, Jaipur.“Psychologists advised that residing with a child would aid her treatment,” stated petitioners’ lawyer, Kapil Gupta, before the high court. The lawyer contended that after the agreed timeline, the couple unlawfully retained the child, claiming he was adopted even though there was no legitimate ceremony or documentation of the same.“An adoption ceremony was alleged to have occurred in May 2025, while the child commenced living with Agarwal and Shamistha only in Dec 2025,” the lawyer said in court. The petitioners referenced the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956, asserting their entitlement to the child’s custody, especially given his young age.On the other side, the IPS officer’s lawyer, Swadeep Singh Hora, argued that the adoption was legally formalised on May 8, 2025, with the biological parents’ consent obtained via telephone. “The adoption was valid under the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956,” Hora told the court, noting that the child was living with them and enrolled in a private school in Jaipur with proper care and education.Hora further told the court that Agarwal, being an IPS officer, is well placed to provide for the child’s welfare and that the legality of the adoption cannot be decided in habeas corpus proceedings but only in a civil trial after evidence is recorded.After considering the rival submissions, the division bench concluded that the Guptas voluntarily entrusted their child’s custody to Agarwal and his wife, ruling that such custody could not be categorised as “illegal detention.” The court said that the child is well settled in Jaipur, emphasising that his welfare necessitated allowing him to remain with the respondents. “The validity of the alleged adoption involves disputed facts requiring oral and documentary evidence, thus the habeas corpus petition is dismissed,” the judges stated.
