Welfare more important than dad’s identity: Supreme Court
SC rules no citizen should suffer for parent’s negligence
By : j. venkatesan
Update: 2015-07-07 06:19 GMT
New Delhi: A Supreme Court bench of Justices Vikramajit Sen and A.B. Sapre said, “The views of an uninvolved father are not essential, in our opinion, to protect the interests of a child born out of wedlock and being raised solely by his/her mother.”
Taking note of the fact that birth certificate was yet to be obtained for the five-year old boy without the father’s name, the bench directed that if a single parent/unwed mother applies for a birth certificate for a child born from her womb, the authorities concerned may only require her to furnish an affidavit to this effect, and must thereupon issue the certificate.
“Trite though it is, yet we emphasise that it is the responsibility of the state to ensure that no citizen suffers any inconvenience or disadvantage merely because the parents fail or neglect to register the birth. Nay, it is the duty of the state to take requisite steps for recording every birth of every citizen. To remove any possible doubt, the direction pertaining to issuance of the birth certificate.”
The bench directed the guardian court in the capital to recall the dismissal order passed by it and thereafter consider the appellant’s application for guardianship expeditiously without requiring notice to be given to the putative father of the child.