Tuesday 28 June 2016

Single Mother Legal Rights in India

Single Mother Legal Rights in India

Single mother means that mother which takes care of the baby herself has more rights. The father’s name is not important in any document if the father has not taken care of his responsibilities towards the child. This verdict of the court is in favor of single mothers.

There are many people in the world these days who are taking care of the child alone even if their spouses are alive. Most of such cases are of women who take care of the child alone. The Delhi court verdict has gone in the favor of single mothers. It clearly stated that it is not necessary to have father’s name on a child’s passport.

Shalu Nigam’s case was put forward in the court by her mother. She wanted to renew her child’s passport without putting in the biological father’s name. The child’s mother was not staying with her husband and they were divorced. The child was born on 24th Aug 1997 and from that time the mother has been taking care of the child alone. According to mother the father never cared or took nay responsibility for her daughter and still the passport officials were pressuring her to put her biological father's name in passport. She was given the example of BS Deepa case of 2014 Madras and was told that the relations between biological father and child can never be finished.

According to Delhi High court name of the mother is sufficient in the passport as the child’s mother has brought up her alone. According to court if it’s legally required then only passport officials can ask to fill in father’s name otherwise not.

Earlier the court had given an important decision in the case of the biological father. In Teesta Chaturaj case of Delhi, the court said that if a father has not availed any of his responsibilities then no court can give a green flag to him as a biological father.  

In our country, 90 to 95% of children stay with their mother after the trials. If a woman has no criminal record then the child can stay with her. But passport office matter is different. If a father is taking care of his child and he applies to the passport office for his child’s passport then he can do it without the permission of the mother. If he wants to take the child to a foreign country then can a mother stop him from doing so? Then why are the rules so strict for a woman to have her husband’s name in passport.

The court gave its verdict that nowadays single mother cases are more prevalent. An unmarried mother, surrogate mother, a rape victim, divorced and ivf related cases are seen and similar to single mother cases. In some cases, only mother’s name is sufficient for the child. Passport is one such case.


Fact- Supreme court wrote in a case in 2010 that the right to privacy is related to the right to live and the right to freedom of women. 

Manoj Kumar Supreme court Advocate
Manoj Kumar Supreme court Advocate
Source - DB news - Manoj Kumar Supreme court Advocate

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