Family lawAdoption child in adoptive limbo jurisdiction to revoke freeing order Re J (A Minor) (Adoption: Freeing Order): FD (Black J): 4 April 2000

The child, aged eight, had been placed in foster care with a view to adoption.

Following the making of a freeing order under s.18 of the Adoption Act 1976, he had become settled in that placement and it was now intended that he should remain there.

Pursuant to s.20 of the 1976 Act, only his mother could apply to revoke the freeing order once the required 12-month period from the making of the order had elapsed.

However, she was not seeking to have him returned to her care and it was highly unlikely that she would take active steps to have the freeing order revoked.Accordingly, the local authority had applied for revocation of the order under the courts inherent jurisdiction.

The case was heard and judgment given in chambers with leave to report on the basis of non-identification of the parties.

Roger Bickerdike (instructed by head of legal services) for the local authority; Gillian Matthews (instructed by Langleys, York) for the guardian ad litem; the mother did not appear and was not represented.Held, granting the application, that since there was nothing in the Adoption Act 1976 itself which expressly restricted the use of the inherent jurisdiction or, in particular, prohibited its use to revoke a freeing order where an application under s.20 of the Act was not appropriate or not realistic, it was open to the court to exercise its inherent jurisdiction to revoke a freeing order where that would be in the best interests of the child.

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