HC seeks AMC’s reply over plea for change in child’s birth certificate

HC seeks AMC’s reply over plea for change in child’s birth certificate

Adoptive Father Wants His Name To Replace Biological Father’s Name

 TIMES NEWS NETWORK Ahmedabad : The Gujarat high court on Thursday ordered the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) to reply to a petition against the civic body’s reluctance to change the name of a child in his birth certificate. The plea was filed by the child’s adoptive father who wants the name of the child’s biological father to be replaced with his in the certificate. 

The petitioner, a resident of Ranip, approached the HC because he was facing problems getting the child admitted to a school with his name as the father. The child’s mother had contracted a second marriage with him after her divorce with the first husband. The petitioner had adopted her child and an adoption deed was prepared and duly registered with a sub-registrar’s office. On March 3, the petitioner applied to the AMC to make changes in the child’s birth certificate by replacing the biological father’s name with his. 

On March 24, he got a reply from the civic body that he would require an order from a competent court to make the correction in the birth certificate. He approached the high court through advocate Bakul Panchal, and the court issued a notice to the AMC. In response to the notice, AMC’s counsel submitted that the adoptive father had withdrawn his application on March 21. 

This led the peti- tioner’s lawyer to raise a question on AMC’s order of rejecting the application on merit. He asserted that a valid and registered adoption deed is the only requirement for such correction in birth certificate, but AMC was unnecessarily insistent on the court’s order. Upon hearing these arguments, Justice V D Nanavati asked the civic body to file a reply to the petition on June 6.