(1) No person except the father or mother or the guardian of a child shall have the capacity to give the child in adoption.
[(2) Subject to the provisions of sub-section (4), the father or the mother, if alive, shall have equal right to give a son or daughter in adoption:
Provided that such right shall not be exercised by either of them save with the consent of the other unless one of them has completely and finally renounced the world or has ceased to be a Hindu or has been declared by a court of competent jurisdiction to be of unsound mind.]
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[(4) Where both the father and mother are dead or have completely and finally renounced the world or have abandoned the child or have been declared by a court of competent jurisdiction to be of unsound mind or where the parentage of the child is not known, the guardian of the child may give the child in adoption with the previous permission of the court to any person including the guardian himself.]
(5) Before granting permission to a guardian under sub-section (4), the court shall be satisfied that the adoption will be for the welfare of the child, due consideration being for this purpose given to the wishes of the child having regard to the age and understanding of the child and that the applicant for permission has not received or agreed to receive and that no person has made or given or agreed to make or give to the applicant any payment or reward in consideration of the adoption except such as the court may sanction.
Explanation.For the purposes of this section
(i) the expressions father and mother do not include an adoptive father and an adoptive mother; * * *
[(ia) guardian means a person having the care of the person of a child or of both his person and property and includes
(a) a guardian appointed by the will of the child's father or mother, and
(b) a guardian appointed or declared by a court; and]
(ii) court means the city civil court or a district court within the local limits of whose jurisdiction the child to be adopted ordinarily resides.