When Anwar Ali, 45, found an abandoned baby lying in a drain behind his mud hut on the fringes of Calcutta, he thought his prayers had been answered. Ali and his wife had been craving for a child for 14 years. They took the baby home after informing the local police, hoping to adopt it. When it came to the legal formalities, however, Ali was shocked to learn that as under Muslim Personal Law he couldn’t adopt the baby but could merely be its guardian. This meant that the baby could neither take his name nor inherit his property by right. Though the legal implications of guardianship frustrated him, Ali still went ahead and took the child in.

To be sure, it’s not only Muslims who cannot adopt children by law. Christians, Jews and Parsis cannot adopt children either. Only the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956 (HAMA), recognises adoption in our country.

But now there seems to be an effort to extend adoption rights to the minorities as well. The Supreme Court recently asked the Centre to explore whether Muslims, Christians, Parsis and Jews could be brought under a uniform adoption rule. But this is easier said than done for it would mean impinging upon the personal laws of these minority communities.

In fact, the largest minority group in the country ? the Muslims ? is dead set against a uniform adoption law. It points out that any alteration in the existing rules would amount to fiddling with the Shariat law, which is unacceptable to most. Not even minor changes are welcome, for unlike the Hindu Personal Law, family laws and religion are inseparable in Islam, according to the Muslim Personal Law Board.

“The Union government has already told the Supreme Court that it can’t draw up a new law unless it has our support, which it doesn’t. In a multi-cultural society like ours, uniform laws are not possible,” says Dr S.Q.R. Ilyas, executive member of the Muslim Personal Law Board, New Delhi.

At present, the only codified law available for adoption in India is HAMA. This Act is applicable to Hindus, Buddhists, Jains or Sikhs, any person who is not a Muslim, Christian, Parsi or Jew, any child whose parents are Hindus, Buddhists, Jains or Sikhs, or one of whose parents is a Hindu, Buddhist, Jain or Sikh, any abandoned child brought up as a Hindu, Buddhist, Jain or Sikh, or any person who is a convert to the Hindu, Buddhist, Jain or Sikh religion. Moreover, you can adopt if you are a Hindu male, over 21 years, single and of sound mind. You can also adopt if you are a female Hindu of sound mind and single, married, widowed or divorced.

This effectively rules out the other communities, leaving a huge gap between the number of orphaned children and the number of children adopted. As things stand, members of minority communities who want to adopt a child can only take the child in ‘guardianship’ under the provisions of The Guardians and Wards Act, 1890. Unlike a child adopted under HAMA, here the child cannot take their name, or inherit their property by right. The Act confers only a guardian-ward relationship. And this legal guardian-ward relationship exists until the child completes 21 years of age.

Legal experts believe that this is an anomaly that needs to be corrected. “Undoubtedly, we need a new law that applies to all. This should provide legal methods of adoption without interfering with the personal laws,” says veteran advocate Prithwish Bagchi.

But this can’t be done without meddling with the personal laws, say representatives of the minority communities. “Inheritance laws are a part and parcel of the Shariat. How do you alter them without interfering with religion? Also, we are quite happy with the existing laws,” says Abdul Rahim Quraishi, assistant secretary-general of the Muslim Personal Law Board. Christian religious bodies, too, have expressed their reservations about the proposed law.

So far, two attempts to bring the minorities under an umbrella Act for adoption have failed. But there does exist a precedent on this now. A Bombay High Court judgement in 1999 laid down that a person conferred the status of a guardian can move court for adoption after two years. But, says Quraishi, “Even if the court makes you eligible to move for adoption, no Muslim can do that for it is prohibited in the Quran.” Ganguly agrees: “Whatever be the precedent, I don’t think you can bypass the Muslim Personal Law.”

So despite the Supreme Court’s suggestion, unless the lawmakers find a way out of this religious impasse, a uniform adoption rule seems unlikely to enter the statute books, at least in the near future.