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Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956 · Chapter II: Adoption

Section 16: Presumption as to registered documents relating to adoptions

Whenever any document registered under any law for the time being in force is produced before any court purporting to record an adoption made and is signed by the person giving and the person taking the child in adoption, the court shall presume that the adoption has been made in compliance with the provisions of this Act unless and until it is disproved.

State amendments to this section

Uttar Pradesh.—

Amendment of section 16 of Act 78 of 1956.—In the Hindu Adaptation and Maintenance Act, 1956, section 16 shall be re-numbered as sub-section (1) thereof, and after sub-section (1) as so re-numbered the following sub-section shall be inserted namely:—

"(2) In case any adoption made on or after the first day of January, 1977 no Court in Uttar Pradesh shall accept any evidence in proof of the giving and taking of the child in adoption, except a document recording an adoption, made and signed by the person giving and the person taking the child in adoption, and registered under any law for the time being in force;

Provided that secondary evidence of such document shall be admissible in the circumstances and the manner laid down in the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 (1 of 1872).".

[Vide Uttar Pradesh Act 57 of 1976, s. 35]

Source: India Code (indiacode.gov.in), the consolidated text published by the Legislative Department, Government of India. Text as updated on India Code on 16 October 2026. Words in square brackets [ ] were inserted or substituted by later amending Acts, and *** marks words omitted by an amendment. The amendment footnotes are not reproduced here. Official text on India Code.

Supreme Court judgments citing the section 16