By: D.K Choudhary
Suprme Court Grants Permission to 24-Week Pregnant Woman for Abortion
i. The Supreme Court on January 16, 2017 allowed Mumbai based 22 year old pregnant lady with 24 weeks of Pregnancy to abort her baby as continuation may risk her life.
ii. Two bench of judges, Justice S.A. Bobde and Justice L. Nageswara Rao gave the verdict after a panel of seven doctors from KEM Hospital, Mumbai declared that the skull and brain tissue development of the foetus were absent and there was no chance of the foetus surviving outside the uterus.
iii. Abortion is legal in India only up to 20 weeks of pregnancy under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 that too if it involves a risk to the life of the pregnant woman physically or mentally or involves a substantial risk to the health of the child.
iv. There is an urgent need to look into the amendment of the Act to increase the limit from 20 weeks to 24 weeks.
Kozhikode Corporation becomes First Elderly-friendly corporation in Kerala
Kozhikode Corporation was declared as the first Elderly-Friendly Corporation in Kerala. The 
state government has planned to setup Senior citizen’s club, Day care centres as a part of Vayomitram project for the welfare of the elder people in the state
Steps Taken by Kozhikode Corporation:
i. Kozhikode Corporation has started to collect basic details of all the senior citizens through its 543 Anganwadis, in 75 wards.
ii. Senior citizen’s club will be set up under every Anganwadi and it will be running through a ward-level apex committee
iii. The Corporation has allocated Rs. 1.75 crore for the project.
Adoption Regulations 2017 Effective From January 16, 2017
i. The Union Ministry of Women and Child Development on January 4, 2017 issued a guideline regarding the Adoption Regulations 2017. These new rules will be effective from January 16, 2017.
ii .The Adoption Regulation 2017 implements the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015. It has been framed by the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) to be mandatory under section 68 I of the Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 and will replace the existing Adoption Guidelines, 2015.
Specific Features of the Adoption Regulation 2017
i. The Adoption Regulation 2017 provides to address delay in the adoption procedure in time bound and speedy manner while protecting the interest of the Adoption Agencies and Prospective Adoptive Parents (PAPs)
ii. It also specifies the procedure wherein child is adopted by relatives both within the country and abroad.
iii. The new regulation has relaxed the norms for adoption for certain categories of parents like those who lost child due to sickness or accident or one who want to adopt children with special needs.
iv. Number of days for Prospective Adoptive Parents (PAPs) for completing the procedures of adoption after reserving the child has been increased to twenty from the existing fifteen.
v. The new set of rules has also increased the validity of home study report from two to three years. It consists of 32 Schedules.
vi .CARA shall be the nodal agency to take care of the adoption process under the JJ Act, 2015 through Child Adoption Resource Information & Guidance System (CARINGS).
vii. CARINGS system would enable the agency to maintain the record of the adopted child and track the post adoption follow up to safeguard the adopted children.
viii. Panel of professionally qualified or trained social workers would also be established by the District Child protection Unit (DCPU) for this purpose.
