India, April 13 -- The Bombay high court has declared a septuagenarian Christian couple from the city as the adoptive parents of a 34-year-old married woman who was in their foster care and guardianship since July 1992.

The couple had approached the high court recently, claiming that they did not apply to formally adopt their foster daughter earlier as they were under a bona fide belief that the law did not allow Christians to adopt. Later, they came across two court judgments holding that the law does not prohibit anyone from adopting, their petition said.

The couple, who have no children of their own, informed the court that a shelter home in the city had allowed them to become the child's foster parents in 1992, when she was just a y...