Inter-country adoption and legal representation in Bengaluru for clients outside India
Your matter is in Karnataka. You are not.
PWR Juris is a Bengaluru practice. The International Desk exists for people and organisations who are somewhere else, but whose legal matter has to be dealt with here: before a Karnataka court, a tribunal in Bengaluru, a government authority, or a registry that will only accept an Indian filing.
- Office in Vijayanagar, Bengaluru
- High Court practice at Bengaluru, Dharwad and Kalaburagi
- Consultations by video across time zones
- Correspondence and documentation in English
Start here
Which of these describes you?
The two halves of this page answer different questions. Pick the one that fits, and read that half first.
You want to adopt a child from India
You live outside India and you are trying to understand how adoption from India actually works, whether you qualify, and where a lawyer fits into it.
- Foreign nationals with no Indian connection
- Non-resident Indians and Overseas Citizen of India cardholders
- Adopting a relative’s child
- Step-parent adoption
- An application that has stalled or been refused
You have a legal matter in Bengaluru or Karnataka
You are outside India and something here needs handling: a dispute, a filing, a property, a company, a contract, a proceeding that has already started.
- Foreign individuals, NRIs and OCI cardholders
- Foreign companies and their Indian subsidiaries
- Overseas founders and investors
- International institutions
- Foreign law firms and in-house counsel needing India-side counsel
Why a Bengaluru firm
Indian legal work is local, even when the client is not
Indian law is national, but Indian legal procedure is intensely local. A matter connected with Karnataka is decided by authorities, registries and courts sitting in Karnataka, on their own cause lists, in their own formats, on their own timetable. A hearing in Bengaluru cannot be attended from Frankfurt. A document that has to be lodged with a Bengaluru sub-registrar cannot be emailed to one. Distance does not change what the system requires. It only makes the requirement harder to meet.
There is also a rule about who is allowed to do the work. Practising Indian law is reserved to advocates enrolled under the Advocates Act, 1961. Under the Bar Council of India rules governing foreign lawyers and foreign law firms, as amended and brought into force in May 2025, a registered foreign lawyer or foreign law firm may advise on foreign law and international matters in India, but may not practise Indian law and may not appear before Indian courts, tribunals or statutory or regulatory authorities. Foreign firms are expressly permitted to engage Indian advocates.
If your matter is going to be heard or filed in Karnataka, someone enrolled to practise in India has to do that part. Your own lawyers at home can continue to run the matter. What they cannot do is stand up in a Bengaluru court.
Part one
Inter-country adoption from India
Adoption from India is a regulated government process. It is not a private arrangement, and it does not begin with a lawyer.
If you are living outside India and you want to adopt an Indian child, your first step is not to instruct an Indian advocate. It is to approach an accredited adoption agency or the central adoption authority in the country where you habitually live. That body assesses you, prepares your Home Study Report, and registers your application on the Indian government portal. Everything that follows flows from that registration.
PWR Juris is a law practice. We are not an adoption agency. We cannot place a child with you, we cannot influence which child is referred to you, we cannot move you up a waiting list, and we do not accept payment to arrange an adoption. Anyone who offers you those things is not operating lawfully.
What a legal team can genuinely do is set out further down this page, after the process itself.
The system
Who decides what
Inter-country adoption from India runs on the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, as amended in 2021, and the Adoption Regulations, 2022 made under it. India is a party to the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, 1993. These are the bodies that will handle your file.
| Body | What it does in your case |
|---|---|
| Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) | A statutory body under the Ministry of Women and Child Development, and India’s Central Authority under the Hague Adoption Convention. Scrutinises overseas applicants, issues the No Objection Certificate for the proposed adoption, and issues the Conformity Certificate under Article 23 of the Convention once the order is made. |
| Authorised Foreign Adoption Agency, or the Central Authority in your own country | Your entry point. Assesses your eligibility, prepares your Home Study Report, registers your application on the Indian portal, and later files the two years of post-adoption progress reports. If neither exists where you live, the relevant government department or the Indian diplomatic mission does this. |
| CARINGS, on the Mission Vatsalya portal | The government system where registration, seniority, referrals and reservations happen. Your place in the queue is set by the date your registration and documents go on to it. |
| Specialised Adoption Agency | The licensed Indian agency that has the child in its care. It does the matching, scrutinises your original documents, files the adoption application, and applies for the child’s passport and birth certificate afterwards. |
| District Child Protection Unit | Scrutinises the adoption application and puts the dossier before the District Magistrate. |
| District Magistrate | The authority that passes the adoption order. Since the 2021 amendment this is no longer a court. See the next section. |
| Divisional Commissioner | Hears an appeal by anyone aggrieved by the District Magistrate’s adoption order, within thirty days of the order. |
| State Adoption Resource Agency, Karnataka | Sits under the Directorate of Child Protection in the Department of Women and Child Development, Government of Karnataka. Coordinates and supervises adoption work across the state, including the recognised agencies in Bengaluru. |
A point most published guides get wrong
The adoption order is no longer passed by a court
For many years the final adoption order in India came from a civil court. That changed. The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Act, 2021 substituted the words “District Magistrate” for “Court” in Section 61 of the Act, the provision under which the adoption order is made. The stated purpose was speed: adoption cases are not adversarial, and they were sitting in court queues.
So the order in an inter-country adoption is now passed by the District Magistrate of the district concerned, on a dossier put up by the District Child Protection Unit. If someone is aggrieved by that order, the appeal lies to the Divisional Commissioner, and it has to be filed within thirty days.
The change was challenged on constitutional grounds, including separation of powers, and it has now been tested. On 4 May 2026, in Nisha Pradeep Pandya v. Union of India, a Division Bench of the Bombay High Court dismissed the challenge, held that substituting the District Magistrate for the Court was neither arbitrary nor unconstitutional, and vacated the interim stay that had been keeping pending adoption matters in court. One of the connected petitions had arisen in a foreign adoption case.
A great many adoption guides, including pages published by law firms, still tell foreign parents that “the competent Indian court” issues the adoption order, and some still cite the Juvenile Justice Act as it stood in 2000 or the Adoption Regulations of 2017. If a page you are reading describes a court order or refers to the 2017 Regulations, it has not been updated.
One further point of currency: in August 2026 the Ministry invited public comments on the Adoption Regulations, 2022. Amendments are possible, and anything you read about Indian adoption procedure should be checked against the position on the day you act on it.
The sequence
What actually happens, in the order it happens
This is the route for adopting an orphan, abandoned or surrendered child through a Specialised Adoption Agency. Relative and step-parent adoptions work differently and are covered further down.
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You register in your own country, not in India
You approach an Authorised Foreign Adoption Agency or your country’s Central Authority for adoption. If your country has neither, you approach the relevant government department or the Indian diplomatic mission. They assess you, complete your Home Study Report, and register your application on the Indian portal with the supporting documents.
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Seniority and referrals
Your place in the queue runs from the date your registration and documents are uploaded. Non-resident Indian and Overseas Citizen of India applicants are treated on the same footing as applicants living in India for priority. When your turn comes, child profiles are sent to your agency or authority with a Child Study Report and a Medical Examination Report.
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Reserving and accepting a referral
You have ninety-six hours to reserve a referred child, and thirty days from reservation to accept by signing the Child Study Report and Medical Examination Report. If you do not accept within thirty days the profile is withdrawn and your seniority drops to the bottom of the list. You may have the medical report reviewed by a doctor of your own choosing.
96 hours, then 30 days -
Approval in your own country, then the No Objection Certificate
For Hague Convention countries, your receiving country issues its approval under Article 5 or Article 17. CARA then issues the No Objection Certificate for the adoption, normally within ten days of receiving your acceptance and that approval.
NOC within 10 days -
The adoption order
The Specialised Adoption Agency approaches the District Child Protection Unit within five days of the No Objection Certificate, and the Unit puts the dossier before the District Magistrate. If you are living abroad and want the agency to represent you, the application has to be accompanied by a power of attorney in favour of the agency’s social worker or adoption in-charge.
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Conformity certificate, passport, birth certificate
Where your country is a Hague signatory, CARA issues the Article 23 Conformity Certificate within three days of the order appearing on the portal. The agency applies for the child’s Indian passport within three days of the order, and the regional passport office is to issue it within ten days. The birth certificate naming you as parents is applied for within five days of the certified copy of the order.
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You travel to India and take your child home
Final custody passes to you once the child’s passport and visa have been issued. You must come to India to take the child to your country within two months of the adoption order.
Within 2 months of the order -
Two years of follow-up
Your agency or authority reports on the child’s progress for two years from arrival in your country: quarterly through the first year, and every six months through the second. You give an undertaking to allow home visits during that period.
The Regulations set timelines for individual steps. They do not set a timeline for the process as a whole, and nobody can honestly give you one. The wait is driven by your seniority, the age and profile of the child you are open to, and how many children are available for inter-country placement at the time. Any firm quoting you a guaranteed overall duration is guessing.
Eligibility
Whether you qualify depends on more than one thing
Regulation 5 of the Adoption Regulations, 2022 sets the eligibility criteria for prospective adoptive parents. Age is assessed as at the date of registration, and for a couple the two ages are added together.
| Age of the child | Maximum combined age, couple | Maximum age, single applicant |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 2 years | 85 years | 40 years |
| Above 2 and up to 4 years | 90 years | 45 years |
| Above 4 and up to 8 years | 100 years | 50 years |
| Above 8 and up to 18 years | 110 years | 55 years |
- There must be at least twenty-five years between the child and either parent.
- A couple needs at least two years of stable marital relationship, and both spouses must consent. That requirement does not apply to relative or step-parent adoption.
- A single woman may adopt a child of any gender. A single man is not eligible to adopt a girl child.
- The age criteria do not apply to relative adoptions or adoption by a step-parent.
- Applicants must be physically, mentally, emotionally and financially capable, without a life-threatening medical condition, and must not have been convicted of a criminal offence or accused in a case of child rights violation.
- As CARA currently publishes the position, couples who already have two or more children are considered only for children with special needs or children who are hard to place, unless the adoption is of a relative’s child or a step-child.
- A Home Study Report has to be revalidated every three years.
Whether you can adopt, and what you can realistically expect, turns on your nationality, the country you habitually live in and whether it is a Hague signatory, your marital status, your ages, whether you already have children, your health, and the age and profile of the child you are open to. Those facts interact. A table cannot tell you where you stand, and this page is not advice on your situation.
Routes
There is more than one kind of adoption from India
People often assume there is a single process. There is not, and choosing the wrong description of your own situation at the outset costs months.
Agency adoption of an orphan, abandoned or surrendered child
The mainstream inter-country route, and the one set out in the sequence above. Open to foreign nationals, non-resident Indians and Overseas Citizen of India cardholders living abroad, irrespective of religion.
Inter-country relative adoption
Where the child you wish to adopt is a relative within the meaning of the Juvenile Justice Act. You still register through an Authorised Foreign Adoption Agency or Central Authority abroad, but the application is filed in the district where the child habitually lives with the biological parents or guardians, together with their written consent.
Step-parent adoption
Where a biological parent and their spouse wish to adopt the biological parent’s child. The application is filed in the district concerned, in the prescribed form.
Adoption under the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956
A separate, older, private-law route open only to Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs. Where a child adopted under this Act is to be taken out of India, CARA has notified a distinct procedure involving a certificate and, for Hague countries, a No Objection Certificate from CARA.
Our role
Where legal assistance genuinely helps
Most of an inter-country adoption is done by agencies and authorities, not by lawyers. These are the points where legal work makes a real difference.
- Working out your position before you commit. Which route applies to you, whether you meet the eligibility criteria as they currently stand, and what your country of residence being inside or outside the Hague Convention changes.
- Documentation. Reviewing and preparing the paperwork the Indian side will accept, including notarisation, apostille where your country is a party to the 1961 Apostille Convention, and attested English translations of documents in another language.
- The power of attorney to the agency. Advising on and drafting the instrument the Regulations require where you want the Specialised Adoption Agency to represent you before the District Magistrate because you are living abroad.
- When something goes wrong. An application refused, stalled, wrongly processed, or lost between authorities. That can mean an appeal to the Divisional Commissioner within the thirty-day window, or, where the complaint is inaction or an unlawful decision by an authority, a writ petition before the High Court of Karnataka.
- Relative and step-parent applications. The application itself, the consents, and the documentation that has to go with them.
- Checking that what you are being offered is lawful. Before money changes hands or a child is handed over. See the warning signs below.
- Family matters that arise alongside. Guardianship, custody and related proceedings connected with Bengaluru courts, handled by our family law team.
Yes, you will have to come to India at least once. Under the Regulations, adoptive parents must come to India to take the adopted child to their country within two months of the adoption order, and final custody follows the issue of the child’s passport and visa.
What you may be able to avoid is attending the proceeding before the District Magistrate, because the Regulations allow parents habitually resident abroad to be represented there by the Specialised Adoption Agency under a power of attorney. It is also possible, after the No Objection Certificate and while the order is pending, to take the child into pre-adoption foster care within India.
Anyone telling you that an adoption from India can be completed without you setting foot in the country is not describing the current rules.
Before money changes hands
Warning signs in an adoption offer
Adoption from India attracts people who prey on how badly prospective parents want it to work. Adoption outside the statutory process is an offence under the Juvenile Justice Act, and authorities in Karnataka do act on illegal placements. These are the things that should stop you.
- A specific child offered to you outside the government portal. Referrals come through CARINGS, in order of seniority. They do not come through an intermediary who has found a child for you.
- A direct handover from biological parents. A child being given straight to foreign parents, with paperwork promised afterwards, is not an adoption. It is an offence, and it exposes the child.
- Payments described as donations, facilitation or expediting. Particularly any payment said to secure a referral or move you up a queue.
- Being told you can skip registering in your country of residence. For an applicant living abroad, that registration is the foundation of the whole file. There is no version of the process that starts anywhere else.
- Being told a lawyer can obtain an adoption order on its own. No advocate can produce an adoption order without the agency, authority and approval steps that come before it. Anyone saying otherwise is either misinformed or selling something else.
If something you have been offered looks like any of the above, stop and take advice before you pay anything or travel. That conversation costs you very little and it is a great deal cheaper than the alternative.
Part two
A legal matter in Bengaluru or Karnataka, handled from here
You are outside India. Something here needs doing, and it needs doing by people who can walk into the building. These are the matters we take on for clients abroad, each linked to the practice that handles it.
Family matters connected with Bengaluru courts
Divorce, custody, maintenance and guardianship where an Indian court has jurisdiction, including matters involving spouses living in different countries.
Property, title and registration
Title checks, registration, khata, tenancy and possession problems, and disputes over land or apartments held in Karnataka by owners who live elsewhere.
Corporate, commercial and company law
Shareholder and joint venture disputes, oppression and mismanagement, insolvency, and proceedings involving an Indian subsidiary or an Indian counterparty.
Contracts and commercial documentation
Drafting and reviewing agreements governed by Indian law, and advising on what an Indian counterparty’s contract actually commits you to.
Arbitration seated in India
Institutional and ad hoc arbitration under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, including interim relief, challenges to awards and enforcement through the courts.
Intellectual property
Trade mark filing and opposition, and infringement and passing off actions, for foreign brand owners entering or already present in the Indian market.
Technology, data privacy and cyber matters
Digital fraud, data protection questions, technology contracts and evidence issues arising from online conduct with an Indian connection.
Bank and financial recovery proceedings
Proceedings before the Debts Recovery Tribunal and under SARFAESI where an asset, guarantee or account connected with an overseas party is caught up in recovery.
Criminal proceedings involving a foreign national or NRI
A complaint or first information report registered in Bengaluru against someone now abroad, including anticipatory bail and quashing petitions.
Service and pension matters of former central government employees
Pension, retirement benefit and service record disputes before the Central Administrative Tribunal, for people who worked in India and have since moved abroad.
We do not provide immigration or visa services, and we do not advise on the law of your own country. If your question is really about your home jurisdiction, we will say so rather than take the file.
Forums
Where a Karnataka matter is actually heard
One of the hardest things to work out from outside India is which body will decide your matter. These are the forums our work takes us to, and the kind of overseas matter that reaches each one.
| Forum | What it deals with | Typical overseas matter |
|---|---|---|
| High Court of Karnataka, Bengaluru, with benches at Dharwad and Kalaburagi | Writ petitions, appeals, quashing, company and commercial appeals, supervisory jurisdiction over courts and tribunals in the state. | Challenging an authority’s decision or its failure to decide. Appeals from Bengaluru trial courts. |
| City Civil Court and the commercial courts, Bengaluru | Civil suits, injunctions, and commercial disputes above the specified value under the Commercial Courts Act, 2015. | Contract, supply and shareholding disputes. Suits over property in the city. |
| Family Courts, Bengaluru | Divorce, custody, maintenance and guardianship. | Matrimonial and custody matters where one party lives abroad. |
| Arbitration and Conciliation Centre, Bengaluru | Institutional arbitration and mediation, with related court proceedings for interim relief, challenge and enforcement. | An Indian-seated arbitration clause in a supply, services or joint venture contract. |
| National Company Law Tribunal, Bengaluru Bench | Company law, oppression and mismanagement, and insolvency under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016. | A foreign shareholder in dispute with Indian co-founders. A claim against an Indian company in insolvency. |
| Debts Recovery Tribunal, Bengaluru | Recovery proceedings by banks and financial institutions, and SARFAESI applications. | An overseas guarantor or an asset held abroad caught in an Indian recovery action. |
| Central Administrative Tribunal, Bengaluru Bench | Service matters of central government employees and pensioners. | A pension or retirement benefit dispute for someone who has since settled abroad. |
| Karnataka Real Estate Regulatory Authority | Complaints against promoters and developers of registered projects. | An overseas buyer of a Bengaluru apartment facing delay or a changed specification. |
| Consumer commissions in Karnataka | Deficiency in service and defective goods. | An overseas purchaser or service recipient dealing with an Indian supplier. |
| Trade Marks Registry, Chennai | Trade mark examination, opposition and rectification. Its territorial jurisdiction includes Karnataka, so a Bengaluru-based filing is administered from Chennai. | A foreign brand owner filing in India, or opposing a mark filed by someone else. |
| Sub-Registrar offices in Bengaluru, and the Collector of Stamps | Registration of deeds and instruments, and adjudication of stamp duty on documents executed abroad. | Getting a power of attorney signed overseas into a usable state in Karnataka. |
| Police stations and Magistrates’ courts, Bengaluru | First information reports, bail, and trial of criminal complaints. | A foreign national or NRI named in a Bengaluru complaint while outside India. |
A note on geography. Our office and the bulk of our work are in Bengaluru. Our Dharwad presence is High Court work.
For lawyers instructing from abroad
India-side counsel on a Karnataka matter
If you are a law firm or an in-house team outside India with a client matter that has landed in Karnataka, the constraint is regulatory rather than practical. Under the Bar Council of India rules on foreign lawyers and foreign law firms, as amended in May 2025, a foreign lawyer or firm may not practise Indian law and may not appear before an Indian court, tribunal or statutory or regulatory authority. Foreign firms may engage Indian advocates, and Indian firms that are not registered under those rules may work with foreign firms by referral or consultancy rather than partnership.
In practice that means you keep the client and the matter, and we take the India side. We are used to working to another firm’s reporting rhythm rather than our own, and we can give a written preliminary assessment of the Indian position, the likely forum and the realistic procedural path before anything is filed, so that you have something to put in front of your client.
Practicalities
Working with us from outside India
The two questions overseas clients ask first are how the work gets done across a time difference, and whether they will have to fly here. Here is how it works, including the parts that cannot be done remotely.
Getting started
The first conversation is by video or telephone. Bengaluru runs on Indian Standard Time, which is UTC plus five and a half hours, so tell us your time zone and we will propose something inside your working day rather than ours.
Documents are shared electronically. For a first assessment, scanned copies are usually enough; originals and certified copies matter later, at the filing stage. All correspondence and documentation is in English.
Authority to act
Two documents come up. A vakalatnama is the instrument by which a client authorises an advocate to appear in a particular proceeding. A power of attorney is broader, and lets a named person do specified things for you in India, including instructing lawyers, signing and appearing where that is permitted.
For a power of attorney signed abroad: sign before a notary and obtain an apostille if your country is a party to the 1961 Hague Apostille Convention, as India is, or sign before an authorised officer at an Indian Embassy or Consulate, which is recognised under the Diplomatic and Consular Officers (Oaths and Fees) Act, 1948.
What happens once it reaches India
An instrument executed abroad still has to be brought into the Indian system. Stamp duty is payable here, generally within three months of the document being received in India, with adjudication before the Collector of Stamps. Where the power of attorney relates to immovable property, the requirements of the Registration Act, 1908 apply, and registration may be necessary.
A power of attorney does not by itself transfer title to property, whatever it says on its face. Documents in another language need a certified English translation.
When you may still need to be here
A properly drafted authority covers a great deal, but not everything. Your own evidence and cross-examination generally have to be given in person unless the court permits video conferencing. A court or authority may direct your personal appearance. Some registrations and identification steps require you. In an adoption, you must come to collect your child. In criminal matters, personal appearance or surrender may be unavoidable.
We will tell you at the outset which parts of your matter fall into this category, rather than after you have engaged us.
We will not tell you that you will never need to come to India, that a matter will be finished by a particular date, or that an outcome is assured. Whether physical presence is required, and how long anything takes, depends on the matter, the forum, the other side and the applicable law. Any of those can change while a case is running.
Questions
Questions we are asked from abroad
Can a Bengaluru law firm act for me if I have never been to India?
Yes. There is no requirement that a client be resident in India, or have ever been here, to instruct an Indian advocate. What matters is that the matter itself has a connection with India that gives an Indian forum jurisdiction: a property here, a company here, a contract governed by Indian law, a proceeding already filed here, or a family matter over which an Indian court has jurisdiction.
The practical work of engaging us is a conversation, a written scope, and an authority to act. None of that requires you to travel.
Do I need an Indian lawyer to start an adoption from India?
No, and it is worth being blunt about this. If you live outside India, the process begins with an Authorised Foreign Adoption Agency or the central adoption authority in your own country. They prepare your Home Study Report and register you on the Indian portal. An Indian lawyer cannot do that step for you and cannot substitute for it.
Legal assistance becomes useful at particular points: establishing which route applies before you commit, documentation and authentication, the power of attorney to the Specialised Adoption Agency, relative and step-parent applications, and situations where an application has been refused or has stalled.
Is the adoption order still passed by a court?
No. The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Act, 2021 replaced “Court” with “District Magistrate” in Section 61 of the Act, which is the provision under which an adoption order is made. Appeals against the order go to the Divisional Commissioner within thirty days.
The change was challenged and upheld by the Bombay High Court in May 2026, which also vacated the interim stay that had been keeping pending matters in court. Many published guides have not caught up, so if you read that a court passes the order, check the date on the page.
Can we adopt a child from Karnataka specifically if we live abroad?
You do not choose a state. Referrals are generated centrally through the government portal, in order of your registration seniority, from Specialised Adoption Agencies across the country. Your preferences as to the child’s age and profile are taken into account. Where the child comes from is not something you select.
Karnataka becomes relevant once a child in a Bengaluru or Karnataka agency is referred to you, because from that point the agency, the District Child Protection Unit and the District Magistrate handling your file are all here.
How long does inter-country adoption from India take?
There is no honest single answer. The Adoption Regulations fix timelines for individual steps, such as ten days for the No Objection Certificate or ten days for the child’s passport, but they do not fix a duration for the process as a whole.
What actually drives the wait is your seniority from the date of registration, the age range and profile you are open to, and how many children are available for inter-country placement at the time. Being open to an older child or a child with special needs changes the picture considerably.
Can my advocate appear for me without a power of attorney?
For appearing in a proceeding, what an advocate needs is a vakalatnama signed by you. A power of attorney is a different and broader instrument, and it becomes necessary where someone in India has to do things beyond instructing lawyers: signing documents, dealing with a registry, operating in a transaction, or appearing where the rules permit an attorney holder to do so.
Which of the two you need, and how widely it should be drawn, depends on the matter. A power of attorney drafted too broadly creates its own risks, so this is worth getting right rather than copying a template.
I am a lawyer outside India. Can I appear in a Karnataka court for my client?
No. Under the Bar Council of India rules on foreign lawyers and foreign law firms as amended in May 2025, a foreign lawyer or foreign law firm may not practise Indian law and may not appear before Indian courts, tribunals or statutory or regulatory authorities. Practising Indian law is reserved to advocates enrolled under the Advocates Act, 1961.
What the rules do contemplate is foreign firms engaging Indian advocates, and collaboration by referral or consultancy. That is the basis on which we take instructions from counsel abroad.
What time can we speak, given the difference?
Indian Standard Time is UTC plus five and a half hours. In practice that means early mornings here work well for clients in Europe and the Gulf, and evenings here work for the Americas. Tell us your city and we will propose a time inside your working day.
Can you work alongside our own lawyers or accountants at home?
Yes, and it is often the sensible arrangement. Your advisers understand your position, your commercial history and your home jurisdiction. What they cannot do is conduct the Indian side. We are used to reporting into another firm’s format and timetable rather than expecting them to adopt ours.
Can you help if an application has been rejected or is stuck?
Often, yes, though the route depends on what has happened and which body did it. Where an authority has made a decision, there is usually a statutory appeal with a time limit, and missing that limit narrows the options considerably. Where an authority has simply not acted, or has acted outside its powers, a writ petition before the High Court of Karnataka may be available.
The first thing we would want to see is the actual order or communication and its date, because the date usually determines what is still open.
Speak to us
Tell us where you are and what is happening here
Two things help us give you a useful answer quickly: where you are based, and what stage the matter has reached. If there are documents, orders or correspondence, send them. If the answer is that you do not need us, we would rather tell you that at the start.
Where your matter goes next
Practice areas
General information, not legal advice. This page describes the Indian statutory framework in general terms so that readers outside India can orient themselves. It is not advice on any individual case and no advocate and client relationship arises from reading it or from sending an enquiry. Whether any of it applies to you depends on facts we have not seen.
On adoption in particular. Eligibility, procedure and the applicable route depend on nationality, country of habitual residence and whether that country is a party to the Hague Adoption Convention, marital status, age, existing children, health and the profile of the child. Adoption is regulated by the Central Adoption Resource Authority and the authorities described above, and PWR Juris does not perform any adoption agency function. Nothing on this page is a representation that any adoption will be permitted, approved or completed.
Currency. The legal position described here was reviewed on 3 September 2026 against the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 as amended, the Adoption Regulations, 2022, published material of the Central Adoption Resource Authority, and the Bar Council of India rules on foreign lawyers as amended in May 2025. The Adoption Regulations, 2022 were opened for public comment in August 2026 and may be amended. Please check the current position before acting.
PWR Juris, 3rd Floor, Rachana Galaxy, Marenahalli Main Road, Govindaraja Nagar Ward, PF Layout, Vijayanagar, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560040. Telephone and WhatsApp +91 76761 38608. Email info@pwrjuris.in.
