New South Wales Repealed Acts

This legislation has been repealed.

ADOPTION OF CHILDREN ACT 1965 - SECT 21

21 Court to be satisfied as to certain matters

(1) The Court shall not make an order for the adoption of a child unless:

(a) except as provided by subsection (1A), the Director-General has made a report in writing to the Court concerning the proposed adoption,

(b) where the application for the order is made on behalf of the applicant or applicants by the principal officer of a private adoption agency, that principal officer has also made such a report, and

(c) the Court, after considering any such report and any other evidence before the Court, is satisfied that:

(i) in the case where the child had not attained the age of 18 years before the date on which the application for the order was filed in the Court:

(a) the applicant or each of the applicants is of good repute and is a fit and proper person to fulfil the responsibilities of a parent, and

(b) the applicant or each of the applicants is a suitable person to adopt that child, having regard to all relevant considerations, including the age, state of health, education (if any) and religious upbringing or convictions (if any) of the child and of the applicant or applicants, and any wishes that have been expressed by a parent or guardian of the child in an instrument of consent to the adoption of the child with respect to the religious upbringing of the child, or

(ii) in the case where the child had attained the age of 18 years before the date on which the application was filed in the Court:

(a) the applicant or each of the applicants is of good repute, and

(b) in the particular circumstances of the case it is desirable that the child should be adopted by the applicant or applicants,

and in either case the welfare and interests of the child will be promoted by the adoption.

(1A) The Court may dispense with the making of a report referred to in subsection (1) (a):

(a) generally in respect of applications made on behalf of applicants by the principal officer of a private adoption agency where the Court is satisfied that the standard of applications made by that principal officer justifies such a dispensation,

(b) in respect of a particular application made on behalf of an applicant or applicants by the principal officer of a private adoption agency where the Court is satisfied that the particulars of that application and the report of that principal officer justify such a dispensation, or

(c) generally in respect of applications made by or on behalf of an applicant or applicants who is or are the natural parent or parents or relative or relatives of the child.

(1B) The Director-General may make a report referred to in subsection (1) (a) to the Court notwithstanding that the Court has, under subsection (1A), dispensed with the making of the report.

(1C) The Court may, in respect of an application made by a person other than the Director-General, require the Director-General to make a report referred to in subsection (1) (a) within a period of 6 months after the date of the making of the application or such other period as the Court may, having regard to the circumstances of the case, specify.

(2) Where the regulations provide for the keeping by the Director-General of a register of persons approved by the Director-General or by the principal officer of a private adoption agency as fit and proper persons to adopt children, the Court may refuse to make an adoption order in relation to a child referred to in subparagraph (i) of paragraph (c) of subsection (1):

(a) if, in the case of a sole applicant, the applicant’s name is not included in that register or, in the case of joint applicants, neither of their names is included in that register, or

(b) where the name of the applicant or of either applicant or the names of both of the applicants, as the case may be, is or are included in that register-if the Court is satisfied that some other person whose name is included in that register, is entitled under the regulations to be selected by the Director-General or by the principal officer of a private adoption agency, as the case may be, to be an applicant for an adoption order in priority to the applicant or applicants for the adoption order and that other person is suitable as an adoptive parent of that child.

(3) Subsection (2) does not apply in any case where the applicant, or either of the applicants, for the adoption order is a parent or foster parent of the child or is a relative of the child in whose favour a consent referred to in subsection (2) of section 27 has been given or in any case where the applicant, or either of the applicants, is a relative of the child and the appropriate person, or every appropriate person, as the case may be, whose consent to the adoption would, but for the fact that the person is deceased, be required under section 26, has died without giving the person’s consent referred to in that section.