Father’s name not a necessity for Indian Passport, says HC

Local Press Co 5-point Snippet

1. Earlier this week, the Delhi High Court ordered the Regional Passport Office to accept the application of a girl who was raised by a single mother without having to mention the name of her father in the application.

2. The office had earlier failed to accept the passport re-issue application of the child after she failed to mention her father’s name. Her mother moved to HC citing that the requirement violated her daughter’s rights to determine her name and identity. She also informed the HC that she had raised the child alone after her husband abandoned them because he didn’t want a girl child.

3. According to a Times of India report, Justice Manmohan observed, “This court also takes judicial notice of the fact that families of single parents are on the increase due to various reasons like unwed mothers, sex workers, surrogate mothers, rape survivors, children abandoned by father and also children born through IVF technology.”

4. He further stated that just because the software of the passport office didn’t accept a single parent’s applications, it cannot become a legal requirement. The court also pointed out that in the past, the girl was issued a passport without her father’s name, thereby making it evident that the requirement is not a legal necessity. So a procedural formality cannot be a basis of rejecting the application.

5. The court also observed that by forcing the girl to mention the name of the father, it changes her identity to the daughter of the father who abandoned her, instead of the mother who raised her.