law: Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956 
  9. Persons capable of giving in adoption 
  (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 3[sub-section(3) and
  
  sub-section(4)], the father, if alive, shall alone have the right to give in
  
  adoption, but such right shall not be exercised save with the consent of the
  
  mother unless the mother 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.
  (3) The mother may give the child in adoption if the father is
  
  dead or 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.
  3[(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 expression "father" and "mother" do
  
  not include an adoptive father and an adoptive mother; 1[***]
  2[(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.