Mom wins case, child’s birth cert now without dad’s name
A.Subramani@timesgroup.com
Chennai 20.05.2018
: Tavishi Perara may probably be India’s first child without a father, or that’s how her birth certificate is going to read, thanks to the Madras high court’s direction to authorities to keep the father’s name column on the child’s birth certificate blank.
The relief, however, did not come easy for the child’s mother, Mathumitha Ramesh, who had to wage two rounds of litigation to ensure her daughter got a birth certificate without father’s name. For Tavishi was born through intrauterine fertility treatment with the help of a semen donor.
Mathumitha Ramesh was separated from her husband Charan Raj by mutual consent, and Tavishi was born in April 2017 through an intrauterine fertility treatment. However, the commissioner of Trichy Corporation issued a certificate showing one Manish Madanpal Meena as ‘father’ of the child, as he happened to extend help to Mathumitha during her treatment.
When she approached authorities for removing Meena’s name from the father’s name column, it was rejected on the ground that only rectification of mistakes and errors in names of father could be done, and removal of the name was not possible.
‘Remove wrong name, don’t ask for another one’
Assailing the September 4, 2017 order, Mathumitha moved the high court which directed revenue officials to rectify the certificate. But her application to revenue divisional officer was rejected yet again on the ground that it was the registrar of births and deaths who was the competent authority to take a decision on the matter. Mathumitha approached the court again, where her counsel Shabnam Banu argued that Meena’s name had erroneously crept into the birth certificate.
Interestingly, both Meena and Mathumitha’s estranged husband Charan Raj filed separate affidavits stating that neither of them was the father of the child and that they were no way related to Mathumitha’s pregnancy. Meena said he had helped her at the hospital on humanitarian grounds during the time of delivery.
Justice M S Ramesh, after listening to both sides and perusing all relevant documents, said Mathumitha was entitled to succeed because it was clear that she had become pregnant through intrauterine fertility treatment with the help of donated semen.
Narrating these facts and directing the chief health officer of Trichy corporation to remove Meena’s name from the father’s name column, which would now be left blank, justice Ramesh restrained the official from demanding name of the father for the purpose of filling the column.
“I have made these observations consciously in order to restrain the chief health officer from insisting on any other name in the birth certificate on the father’s name column,” the judge said, and posted the case to June 11 for compliance of the order.
A.Subramani@timesgroup.com
Chennai 20.05.2018
: Tavishi Perara may probably be India’s first child without a father, or that’s how her birth certificate is going to read, thanks to the Madras high court’s direction to authorities to keep the father’s name column on the child’s birth certificate blank.
The relief, however, did not come easy for the child’s mother, Mathumitha Ramesh, who had to wage two rounds of litigation to ensure her daughter got a birth certificate without father’s name. For Tavishi was born through intrauterine fertility treatment with the help of a semen donor.
Mathumitha Ramesh was separated from her husband Charan Raj by mutual consent, and Tavishi was born in April 2017 through an intrauterine fertility treatment. However, the commissioner of Trichy Corporation issued a certificate showing one Manish Madanpal Meena as ‘father’ of the child, as he happened to extend help to Mathumitha during her treatment.
When she approached authorities for removing Meena’s name from the father’s name column, it was rejected on the ground that only rectification of mistakes and errors in names of father could be done, and removal of the name was not possible.
‘Remove wrong name, don’t ask for another one’
Assailing the September 4, 2017 order, Mathumitha moved the high court which directed revenue officials to rectify the certificate. But her application to revenue divisional officer was rejected yet again on the ground that it was the registrar of births and deaths who was the competent authority to take a decision on the matter. Mathumitha approached the court again, where her counsel Shabnam Banu argued that Meena’s name had erroneously crept into the birth certificate.
Interestingly, both Meena and Mathumitha’s estranged husband Charan Raj filed separate affidavits stating that neither of them was the father of the child and that they were no way related to Mathumitha’s pregnancy. Meena said he had helped her at the hospital on humanitarian grounds during the time of delivery.
Justice M S Ramesh, after listening to both sides and perusing all relevant documents, said Mathumitha was entitled to succeed because it was clear that she had become pregnant through intrauterine fertility treatment with the help of donated semen.
Narrating these facts and directing the chief health officer of Trichy corporation to remove Meena’s name from the father’s name column, which would now be left blank, justice Ramesh restrained the official from demanding name of the father for the purpose of filling the column.
“I have made these observations consciously in order to restrain the chief health officer from insisting on any other name in the birth certificate on the father’s name column,” the judge said, and posted the case to June 11 for compliance of the order.
