Father, Interrupted

‘Father’s name column can be left blank’: Madras High Court judgement supports single mothers. The ruling brings relief especially to single mothers of children born through artificial insemination or sperm donors, says advocate Vandana Shah.

- Vandana Shah

The judiciary in India is extremely progressive and more often than not, when all else fails, one knocks on the doors of the court asking for justice. This has been amply evident in the past one month with the entire drama surrounding the election of the CM in Karnataka, when the Congress approached the Supreme Court at 2 a.m and the Court obliged and gave it a fair hearing at that late hour. Similarly, when all else failed for Seema, she approached the High Court to decide on her petition regarding the ‘absence of a father’s name’ on her child’s birth certificate.

TANGLED ISSUE

The facts of the case were extremely interesting. Seema was married to Kumar, but the marriage did not work out and the couple went in for a divorce. In April 2017, Seema gave birth to a baby girl, Tina. However, her husband was not the father of the child.