In an important verdict, the Kerala High Court recently upheld that the children of unwed women and sexual assault survivors can live in this country with the fundamental rights of privacy, liberty, and dignity. The observation was made while hearing a petition filed by a man — the son of a single mother, who is an unwed woman — seeking to remove his father's name from the birth register and issue a fresh birth certificate showing only the mother's name as a single parent.
The petitioner’s mother had given birth to the man as a minor, and so his father’s name appears differently in different documents as the name is uncertain. Citing this, the petitioner did not want the father's name to be recorded in any of the documents and certificates.
Hearing the petition filed by the man and his mother, Justice PV Kunhikrishnan said that a child of an unwed mother is also a citizen of this country and that none can infringe any of their fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution. “The children of unwed mothers and the children of [rape survivors] can also live in this country with the fundamental rights of privacy, liberty, and dignity. None can intrude into their personal life, and if it happens, the constitutional Court of this country will protect their fundamental rights,” the court observed.
Stating that it was clearly the right of a person to include their mother's name alone in the birth certificate, identity certificates and other documents, the court said that the person’s privacy must not be intruded upon, whether intentionally or unintentionally. “In some cases it will be a deliberate act and in other cases it may be by mistake. But the state should protect citizens of all as equal to other citizens without disclosing their identity and privacy. Otherwise, they will face unimaginable mental agonies,” the court said.
The court ordered the Registrar of Births and Deaths to expunge and remove the name of the petitioner’s father from the Birth Register and issue a fresh certificate showing the name of mother only as a single parent. This has been ordered to be done within two weeks from the request of the petitioners, and issue the necessary certificate to that effect within the said time. Once the corrected certificate is produced, the name of the father shall be expunged from the official records in the General Education Department, the Board of Higher Secondary Examinations, the UIDAI, the IT Department, the Passport Officer, the Election Commission of India and the State Election Commission, the court ordered.
(With PTI inputs)
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