Mumbai: The Bombay High Court, in a landmark judgement, asserted that parents in marriage disputes are willing to sacrifice their child’s rights and interests to satisfy their own egos. The court rejected a woman’s plea where she wanted only her name mentioned on her child’s birth certificate and not the father’s name.
Justice Mangesh Patil and Justice Y.G. Khobragade, in issuing the order on March 28, denounced such petitions and highlighted that no parent has a right to change a child’s birth certificate at whim. The woman, 38 years of age, had approached the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation asking for the name of her child’s father to be excluded from the birth certificate, listing only her name. She had contended that her husband was of poor habits and never saw the child.
The High Court ruled that the mother cannot legally remove the father’s name from the birth certificate just because he may not have been a significant part of the child’s life or is not the biological father. The court decried the petition as an “abuse of legal process” and punished the petitioner with a fine of ₹5,000.
The court, in its judgement, cited how disputes among spouses result in numerous court cases, and the parents disregard their child’s interests to satisfy their egos. The court further made it clear that the interests of the child have to be put first and not sacrificed for the future of the child over personal reasons. The court cited how the petition by the woman reflected the fact that she considered the child as her possession and did not think about the interest of the child.
The court again stressed that parents cannot make changes to a birth certificate at will but have to undergo legal procedures.
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