Couple Fined for Failing to Return Child Subject to Adoption Denial Upheld

A couple, who had been denied permission to care for a child with the intent of adoption and were ordered to return the child, appealed an administrative decision imposing disciplinary fines for failing to comply. The court determined that the administrative fine imposed under the relevant regulation concerning the placement of children was not criminal in nature, but rather a coercive measure arising from a special legal relationship between the applicants and the state as potential foster/adoptive parents, which lacked the punitive character required to invoke the procedural guarantees of Article 6 EMRK, thus affirming that no right to a public hearing existed.