Children of rape victims, unwed women can keep just mothers' names on documents: HC

Kerala High Court ruled that the child of an unwed mother or of a raped victim is a citizen of the country, and nobody can infringe any of his/her fundamental rights, which are guaranteed in our Constitution and said that the petitioner has the right not to specify the name of the father in the identity documents.

Single Bench of Justice PV Kunhikrishnan gave a judgement on a writ petition seeking to expunge and remove the father’s name from the birth certificate and directed for the issuance of a certificate showing the mother’s name only as a single parent.

The petitioner prayed that a person has the right to not specify the name of their father in identity documents

According to the petition, the mother had conceived her son (son is the petitioner here) when she was a minor under a mysterious circumstance by an unidentified person and the father’s name of the petitioner happened to be recorded differently in different documents. The court considered the petition and issued a judgement on July 19.

While ruling, Court observed that, “A child of an unwed mother is also a citizen of our country, and nobody can infringe any of his/her fundamental rights, which are guaranteed in our Constitution. He/she is a son/daughter of not only the unwed mother but this great country “India.” We need to live in a country where there will be no example to cite for the word “bastard” and let that word continue in the dictionary pages without getting an opportunity to give examples to the young student generation of English. “

The court also noted that the children of unwed mothers and the children of the raped victim can also live in this country with the fundamental rights of privacy, liberty, and dignity; None can intrude into their personal life, and if it happens, the constitutional Court of the country will protect their fundamental rights.

The court took the right of privacy, dignity and liberty of the children of rape victims and unwed mothers and stated that the right of these children cannot be curtailed by any authority.

“It is clear that it is the right of a person to include his mother’s name alone in the birth certificate, identity certificates and other documents. As I observed earlier, there are children of rape victims and children of unwed mothers in this country. The mental agony of such a person is to be imagined by every citizen of this country while intruding into their privacy. In some cases, it will be a deliberate act and in other cases, it may be by mistake. But the State should protect citizens of all such kinds as equal to other citizens without disclosing their identity and privacy. Otherwise, they will face unimaginable mental agonies.”

Court also referred the character ‘Karna’ of Mahabharata that, “the mental agony faced by a person, who does not know their parents is picturised by the character of “Karna” in the ancient epic “Maharabharatha”. “Karna” was not aware of his parents till his mother “Kunthi Devi” told him about the truth. We want a society with no such characters like “Karna,” who curses his life because of the insult he faced for not knowing the whereabouts of his parents. We want the real brave “Karnas’ who was the real hero and fighter in “Mahabharatha”. Our Constitution and the constitutional Courts will protect all of them and the new age “Karnas” can live like any other citizen with dignity and pride.”

Court also made it clear that the court registry will not mention the names of the petitioners in the cause title of the judgment while uploading to the official site of the court.