Northern Territory Consolidated Acts

ADOPTION OF CHILDREN ACT - SECT 50

(1) Subject to this Part, where a child has been adopted (whether before or after the commencement of this Act) in an overseas country and -

(a) the adoption remains effective according to the law of that country;

(b) in consequence of the adoption, the adoptive parent or adoptive parents had, immediately following the adoption, a right superior to that of a birth parent of the child alone, or of the birth parents of the child jointly, in respect of the custody of the child;

(c) under the law of that country the adoptive parent or adoptive parents of the child were, by the adoption, placed generally in the position of a birth parent or birth parents in relation to the child; and

(d) either -

(i) the adoptive parent or adoptive parents had been continuously residing in that country for a period of not less than 12 months immediately before commencing proceedings for the adoption; or

(ii) the Minister had, before the completion of the adoption, decided that the adoptive parent or adoptive parents is or are suitable to adopt a non-citizen child,

then the adoption has, for the purposes of the law in force in the Territory, the same effect as an order for adoption made under this Act, and has no other effect.

(2) Notwithstanding subsection (1), a court of competent jurisdiction (including the Court dealing with proceedings under section 52) -

(a) shall, where the question arises whether an adoption is one to which this section applies, presume that the adoption complies with the requirements of subsection (1) unless the contrary appears from the evidence before it; or

(b) may refuse to recognise an adoption as being an adoption to which this section applies if it appears to the Court that the procedure followed, or the law applied, in connection with the adoption was not fair and just.

(3) Nothing in this section affects any right that was acquired by, or became vested in, a person before the commencement of this Act.