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Madurai bench of Madras High Court on Wednesday stated that there’s no obligation on mother to disclose the name of the father while registering for child’s birth.
The petition was filed by Ms. Mathumitha Ramesh, who had given birth to a child in April last year through intrauterine fertility treatment. Ms. Ramesh had resorted to insemination with the help of a semen donor. However, on child’s birth certificate, the donor’s name was mentioned as father by the authorities.
Representing Ms. Ramesh, Advocate Shabnam had relied on Section 15 of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 read with Rule 11 of the Tamil Nadu Registration of Births and Deaths Rules, 2000. This provision empowers the correction of errors in birth certificate.
Justice M.S. Ramesh stated that, “There are also cases where women are constrained to raise children with their own sources in view of their unwilling and unconcerned partners. It would be totally unjustifiable to insist such single or unwed mothers to compel them to declare the name of the father of the child who has chosen to abandon the child.”
The Court observed that in cases like the one before it, the name of the child’s father cannot be disclosed, since the child was conceived through intrauterine fertility treatment. It noted that in like cases, the donor’s confidentiality needs to be protected.
Therefore, the court allowed the petition and directed the authorities to allow Ms. Ramesh to leave the column for mentioning the father’s name blank.
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