Mumbai unwed mother to get birth certificate without father’s name for the child

The Bombay high court (HC) on Wednesday directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to issue a birth certificate to the daughter of an unwed mother from Nallasopara without mentioning the name of the biological father.

A division bench of justice Abhay Oka and justice Riyaz Chagla directed the civic body to recall the earlier birth certificate issued to the 31-year-old Nallasopara resident mentioning the name of the biological father and issue a fresh certificate, leaving the column for biological father’s name blank.

The woman, in her petition, claimed she was unmarried and had conceived using in-vitro fertilisation and gave birth to a test-tube baby, a girl child, on August 20, 2016. Her counsel, advocate Uday Warunjikar, contended the woman did not know, who the sperm donor (biological father of the child) was, but a name was mentioned in the birth record of the child and in her birth certificate.

The bench, however, refused to get into a controversy, saying disputed questions of facts cannot be adjudicated in writ jurisdiction and for that the woman will have to initiate appropriate proceedings before a civil court.

The bench, however, accepted Warunjikar’s contention that a fresh birth certificate was required to be issued after deleting the name of the man as the biological father of the girl child, according to the law laid down by the Apex Court in 2015 that states that whenever an unwed mother approaches the registrar of birth and deaths with an affidavit stating she is unwed and does not want name of the biological father of her child reflected in the birth certificate of the child, a birth certificate should be issued without mentioning the name of the father.

On March 18, the bench had granted similar relief to a Borivli resident, who had begotten the girl child out of a relationship, but did not want the name of the biological father to be reflected anywhere in her birth record or on birth certificate.