For unwed mothers Father's consent not needed for child's guardianship: SC

In a boost to women’s rights, the Supreme Court on Monday ruled that there was no need for the father’s consent in giving guardianship of a child to an unwed mother, holding that the views of “uninvolved father” are not essential if the child is solely raised by the mother.

A bench of Justices Vikramjit Sen and Abhay M Sapre said that there was no mandatory requirement for a notice to be issued to the father to adjudicate the guardianship or custody plea made by the mother.

“The views of an uninvolved father are not essential, in our opinion, to protect the interests of a child born out of wedlock and being raised solely by his/her mother,” the bench said.

The court passed its judgement while coming to the rescue of an unwed mother who opposed revealing the name of the biological father of her child. The bench directed a local court here to recall an earlier order and decide afresh her plea that she be declared the guardian without any notice to the father.

The court cited various civil and common law jurisdictions across the globe to say that the “welfare of the minor child” was more important than the rights of an “uninvolved father”.
Allowing the plea of the mother, the court gave a common direction to the authorities to issue birth certificate to the children of “single parent/unwed mother” on furnishing of an affidavit alone.

“We direct that if a single parent/unwed mother applies for the issuance of a birth certificate for a child born from her womb, the authorities concerned may only require her to furnish an affidavit to this effect, and must thereupon issue the birth certificate, unless there is a court direction to the contrary.”

“Trite though it is, yet we emphasise that it is the responsibility of the state to ensure that no citizen suffers any inconvenience or disadvantage merely because the parents fail or neglect to register the birth. Nay, it is the duty of the state to take requisite steps for recording every birth of every citizen.To remove any possible doubt, the direction pertaining to issuance of the birth certificate is intendedly not restricted to the circumstances or the parties before us,” it said.