Dutch woman denied info on Indian parents by high court

For Dutch psychologist Daksha Van Dijck, 35, her trip to India turned out to be rather disappointing. The Bombay high court on Friday dismissed a petition filed by her seeking information about her biological parents.

Van Dijck was adopted by Dutch national Johan Van Dijck and raised in the Netherlands. She came back to India in 2001 in search of her biological parents. But in the course of tracing them what Van Dijck found was reasons to believe that she may have been kidnapped as a baby and given away in a foreign adoption.

The high court had earlier directed the prothonotary and senior master of the court to trace the 1975 records pertaining to Van Dijck’s adoption, which was granted with the high court’s permission.

Daksha had sought action against Shraddhashram Mahilasharm in Matunga from where she was adopted. Her advocates Pradeep Havnur and Shabana Ansari told the court that there is no police inquiry report in terms of the adoption but a mere affidavit saying the child (Van Dijck) is free for adoption.

Dismissing the petition, the court, however, said adoptive parents should also be held responsible if the adopted child feels that the adoption procedure was faulty. “Why are the adoptive parents not made a party to this petition,” the court asked.

“I wanted to find my biological mother before I became a mother myself,” said Van Dijck, who has a 9-month-old daughter back in the Netherlands. “After I had a baby, the urge to find my mother intensified. I feel very bad but I am not going to give up.”