Sun Apr 13 10:58:27 UTC 2025: ## Supreme Court Upholds Dismissal of Adoption Deed in Inheritance Dispute
**New Delhi, April 13, 2025** – The Supreme Court of India has refused to overturn an Allahabad High Court ruling that invalidated an adoption deed in a property inheritance case. The Court deemed the adoption a calculated attempt to disinherit the biological daughters of the deceased property owner, Bhuneshwar Singh.
The case involved Ashok Kumar, who claimed to be adopted by Singh in 1967. Kumar challenged the High Court’s December 2024 decision, which found the adoption deed invalid due to procedural irregularities. The High Court noted the absence of the adoptive mother’s consent, a mandatory requirement under law. Evidence presented, including photographs, suggested she neither signed the deed nor participated in the adoption ceremony.
The Supreme Court, agreeing with the High Court, stated the adoption was a “calculated move to deprive” Singh’s daughters, Shiv Kumari Devi and Harmunia, of their rightful inheritance. Justice Surya Kant commented on the common practice in rural areas of using dubious adoptions to disinherit daughters.
The High Court, in its ruling, also apologized for the over four-decade delay in addressing the validity of the adoption deed, originally filed in 1983. The Court emphasized that mandatory adoption procedures were not followed, rendering the deed legally unsound. The Supreme Court’s decision effectively upholds the daughters’ claim to their father’s estate.
First Piper 