Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has ordered the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) to issue a revised birth certificate replacing the name of the child's father with his biological father, who is his mother's lover.
The married woman had given birth to a child from her lover before being formally divorced from her husband. The woman had approached the NMMC for a revised certificate rectifying the name of the child's father. The NMMC however refused to replace the name of the woman's husband with her lover, who was her child's biological father. Following which she had approached the high court. In a major blow to the civic body, the Bombay High Court clarified that the NMMC has no right to say that the name of the child's father cannot be changed.
The woman, a resident of Navi Mumbai told in her petition that she got married to her husband in March 2017. But they did not go along well with each other and started living separately from June 2018. She got divorced from her husband in February 2021. While living separately from her husband, she fell in love with another man and gave birth to a baby boy in July 2020, even before she was officially divorced from her husband.
When she was taken to the hospital for delivery her husband had given his name in the hospital records following which the birth certificate had his name on it. After getting the birth certificate in December 2021, the woman requested NMMC to replace the name of the child's father with his biological father. The civic body refused to rectify the name in the certificate following which she approached the high court.
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The division bench of Justice Gautam Patel and Justice Kamal Khata in its order on September 13, stated, "...no municipal corporation has the right to say that the father's name cannot be changed".
