The Kerala High Court has held that a Registrar of Births and Deaths does not possess the authority to unilaterally alter paternity details on a birth certificate in cases where the child was born during a valid marriage, unless specific legal requirements are satisfied. The judgment was delivered by Justice C. S. Dias in a petition concerning a revised birth certificate issued by the municipality without affording the lawful father notice or an opportunity to be heard.
The background of the case involves a man who was originally recorded as the father of a child born in March 2011 during the subsistence of his valid marriage. Following marital discord, the mother and child went to her parental home and later disappeared. Eventually they resurfaced, with the mother indicating her preference to live with another man. The marriage was mutually dissolved later the same year. Subsequently, the child’s recorded father was changed by the municipal registrar to that other person, purportedly the biological father, without notifying the original father.
The petitioner challenged this alteration, asserting that the change was effected without following due process, and that he had not been given notice or a hearing. The High Court referred to Section 112 of the Indian Evidence Act, which provides that a child born during a valid marriage or within 280 days after its dissolution is conclusively presumed to be the legitimate offspring of the husband, unless access between spouses during that period is disproven. In this case, the child’s birth occurred within the valid marriage and there was no admission or court declaration denying paternity, rendering the presumption intact.
The Court also considered the Registrar’s powers under Section 15 of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969, and Rule 11 of the Kerala Births and Deaths Rules, 1999. Those legal provisions permit correction or cancellation of entries only where they are found to be erroneous in form or substance, or fraudulently or improperly made. Questions of disputed paternity fall outside this limited authority and require full judicial adjudication rather than administrative correction.
The Court further referenced a circular issued by the Local Self Government Department, which requires that if the father’s name is to be altered in a birth record, the applicant must produce a DNA test report, a notarized agreement, and a court order. These prerequisites were not met in the case at hand, and the registrar had altered the record based solely on a joint application and unidentified documentary evidence, neglecting the conclusive presumption of legitimacy under the Evidence Act.
Acting on these findings, the Kerala High Court quashed the revised birth certificate and directed that any reconsideration of the father’s name be conducted strictly in accordance with law, affording the petitioner a full opportunity to be heard. The judgment affirmed that changes to paternity entries cannot be made without fulfilling the prescribed statutory and evidentiary requirements and must follow a judicial process.
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