HC rejects plea to alter birth record, cites estranged spouse's ego

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has stated that parents in matrimonial disputes will go to great lengths to satisfy their ego. The court made this remark while dismissing a woman's petition to remove her estranged husband's name from their child's birth record.

The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court, comprising Justices Mangesh Patil and Y G Khobragade, ruled on March 28 that parents have no right to alter their child's birth record and criticised such petitions.

The court also imposed a cost of Rs 5,000 on a 38-year-old woman who filed a petition seeking to be recognised as the sole parent of her child. She claimed her estranged husband was unfit due to his alleged vices and lack of involvement in their child's life.

The court deemed her plea an abuse of process and a waste of precious time. The woman had requested the Aurangabad municipal authorities to issue a birth certificate with only her name, but the court rejected this, emphasising that parents cannot unilaterally alter their child's birth record.

The high court, however, said just because the father of the child is addicted to vices, the mother cannot insist as a right to be mentioned as a single parent in the child's birth certificate.

"Neither of the parents can exercise any right in respect of the child's birth record," it said.

The bench in its order said the present petition was a classic example of how a matrimonial dispute is a genesis for multiple litigations.

"This demonstrates to what extent parents embroiled in a matrimonial dispute can go to satisfy their ego," the HC said.

It is quite evident that the woman, in order to satisfy her own ego, is not even bothered about the child's interests, the court said, adding the welfare of the child is of paramount importance.

"The relief being claimed clearly demonstrates that she can go to the extent of treating her child as if it is a property in respect of which she can claim some rights, ignoring the interest and welfare of the child," the bench said in the order.

The woman was undermining the child's interest by seeking to mention only her name in the birth record, it said.

While dismissing the petition, the HC said it has no manner of doubt that the same was a "sheer abuse of the process and waste of precious time of the court".

(inputs from PTI)