The High Court of Judicature at Allahabad held that a registered adoption deed carries a statutory presumption of validity and cannot be brushed aside as “suspicious” unless it is disproved in appropriate independent proceedings. In Ram Kumar vs. Narain and Others, the petitioner claimed rights over ancestral agricultural land on the basis of a registered adoption deed executed in 1982 under Hindu rites. Mutation was granted in his favour, but was later set aside by revenue authorities without recording proper reasons, merely branding the adoption deed as doubtful. The Court relied on Section 16 of the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956, which creates a rebuttable presumption that a registered adoption has been validly made. It noted that the respondents never challenged the adoption deed in any civil or independent proceedings. Mere suspicion or conjecture, without evidence, cannot displace the statutory presumption. Emphasising that reasons are the soul of judicial orders, the Court held that unreasoned findings are perverse and unsustainable. Accordingly, the appellate and revisional orders were quashed, and the writ petition was allowed, reaffirming that registered adoption deeds remain operative unless lawfully disproved.