Sunday, Apr 28, 2024 | Last Update : 01:47 PM IST
Issue fresh certificate sans father’s name: Bombay HC
Last week, the BMC had produced the child’s birth certificate and the original records before the high court.
Mumbai: The Bombay High Court (HC) has directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to issue a fresh birth certificate to the child of a woman, who opted for In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) to conceive. According to the petition, the woman, who is a single mother, claimed the BMC had allegedly put the name of an unknown man as father in the baby’s birth certificate.
A division bench comprising of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice R.I. Chagala was hearing a petition filed by a 27-year-old single mother from a Mumbai suburb, who gave birth to a child in August 2016 through the test tube process with the sperm obtained from a donor. After the civic body issued a birth certificate with the name of an unknown person as the child’s father, she requested the HC to direct the BMC’s concerned ward office to issue a birth certificate for the child leaving that place blank.
The woman’s petition also cited a 2015 Supreme Court judgement, which mandated that if a single or unmarried mother applies for a birth certificate and files an affidavit seeking that the father’s name be withheld, such a certificate must be issued without insisting on the name of the child’s biological father.
Last week, the BMC had produced the child’s birth certificate and the original records before the high court. As per the records, at the time of the child's birth, the
“petitioner had submitted her full name, and claimed that she was married to a businessman, the BMC had said. The civic body had also told the court that the woman had also mentioned the name of the child’s biological father in the hospital form that was used for preparing the birth record.
While the woman has disputed the authenticity of the above form, the BMC submitted that she had signed the form. Refusing the woman’s request, the BMC had argued that it had no powers to delete an entry related to one’s birth or death once the same was registered in its records. However, the court said on Wednesday that in view of the SC judgement, the corporation must withhold the father’s name on the certificate.
On the issue of the BMC’s power to correct entries in the register and the woman’s claim that she had not given the information to the hospital authorities where the girl was born, the bench said the matter should be decided by a civil court.
