Biological parents’ names not needed on passport of adopted child, says HC
MUMBAI: The Bombay high court (HC) on Monday held that passport authorities cannot insist on the names of biological parents on the passport application of a child who has been legally adopted.
“In cases where there is a valid adoption as per the provisions of the (Hindu Adoption and Maintenance) Act, the passport authority cannot insist that the applicant furnish the names of biological parents,” said the division bench of justice Abhay Oka and justice Girish Kulkarni.
“Such insistence obliterates the status of a person as created by a valid adoption and nullifies the sanctity and validity of the deed of adoption,” the bench said.
The bench held that the insistence by passport authorities cannot be sustained as the biological father’s name loses relevance on account of the valid deed of adoption. The court was hearing a petition filed by a 37-year-old Malad resident after the Regional Passport Authority, Worli, refused to accept the application of her minor son in his adoptive name.
The previous marriage of the woman had ended in divorce in 2005, and she got custody of her minor son.
In May 2008, she remarried and her previous husband executed a Deed of Adoption giving the son in adoption to the second husband.
Thereafter, the woman got the name of her son changed and also got all his documents, including school records, changed in his adoptive name. On the basis of the new set of documents, she applied for a passport for her son, but the authority refused to accept the application insisting that it must mention name of biological parents. The passport authority told the woman that in the event of remarriage after divorce the name of the stepfather or stepmother cannot be written in the passport of children from the previous marriage. The relationship of the child to his biological parents subsists even after divorce.
The court held that the communication clearly overlooked the legal consequence of the Deed of Adoption. It has now directed passport authorities to accept the passport application of the boy and decide it within 45 days.