High Court Orders Issuing of Passport to Five -year-old Born out of live-in-relationship

KOCHI:The Kerala High Court on Friday came to the rescue of a five-year-old girl, born from a live-in relationship, by asking the passport officer to issue an Indian passport to her within two weeks.

 The Regional Passport Office had denied her the travel document stating that child was not born in a legal wedlock. The court directed the authorities to consider the case on humanitarian grounds.Justice A V Ramakrishna Pillai issued the order on the petition filed by Sindhu George of Muvattupuzha, seeking permission to take her daughter to the US along with her. She submitted before the court that she had a troublesome live-in relationship and had given birth to a daughter.

At present the kid is living with her and there is no litigation till date between the petitioner and the child’s father.

Now she wants to go to the US for a job along with the child as there is no one in India to look after her. She had applied for a passport on behalf of her child but the passport officer refused to issue the document.

 The passport office took a stance that deciding on the citizenship of the child falls beyond the ambit of the powers vested under Ministry of External Affairs. Therefore the petitioner has to approach the Ministry of Home Affairs for further assistance, she was told.

 Sindhu George submitted before the court that her partner, Prashanth Sathyavan, deserted her and the child eight months ago and since then they were living separately.

 The court observed that the petitioner’s minor daughter was born in India and every person is born with a domicile of origin.

It is a domicile received by her at her birth. The petitioner’s daughter being a minor, it cannot be said that she has an intention to abandon the domicile of her origin.  The situation demands a humanitarian consideration and it would be a travesty of justice if the passport is denied to her on hyper-technical grounds.

 The right to life includes the right of the children to grow with the parents and to be in the company of parents. 

The denial of the same would be violation of natural justice. It is also detrimental to the psychological growth and development of the children, the court observed.

Print Page