India`s first child `without father` |
Tavishi Perara may be India`s first `child without a father`, or that`s how her birth certificate will read, thanks to Madras high court`s direction to authorities to keep the column blank. The relief, however, did not come easy for the child`s mother, Mathumitha Ramesh, who had to wage two rounds of litigation to ensure her daughter got a birth certificate without the father`s name. Mathumitha was separated from her husband Charan Raj by mutual consent, and Tavishi was born in April 2017 through intrauterine fertility treatment with the help of a semen donor. The Trichy Corporation commissioner, however, issued a certificate showing one Manish Madanpal Meena as the child`s `father`, as he had helped Mathumitha during her treatment. When she approached authorities seeking removal of Meena`s name, it was rejected on the ground that errors in a name could only be rectified, while removal was not possible. Assailing the September 4, 2017 order, Mathumitha moved the HC, which directed revenue officials to rectify the certificate. But her application to the revenue divisional officer was rejected again on the ground that it was the registrar of births and deaths which was the competent authority to settle the issue.
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