05 Feb, 2024
Dissolution of Marriage Does Not Diminish Father's Claim to Son's School Records : Delhi HC
The Delhi High Court, in granting a man's request to have his name included in the school records of his minor son, emphasized that the termination of a marriage does not erase the parental status of the child's mother and father.
The high court asserted that while the man was alive, there was no valid reason for his ex-wife to substitute the father's name with her second husband's name in their son's school admission form.
The court emphasized that although the woman is entitled to have her name mentioned in the school records as the mother of the minor, this does not empower her to deny the man's right to have his name included in the documents as the child's father.
"The dissolution of a marriage does not efface the parental status of the mother and father of the child borne out of the said marriage," Justice C. Hari Shankar said.
The court was deciding the man's plea, wherein he sought an order instructing the school to rectify its records by including his name as the father of the child. The child, born in March 2006, had initially enrolled in a school in 2012. In the two schools he attended until March 2016, the man's name was consistently listed as the boy's father in the official documents.
The petitioner's complaint was centered around the omission of his name from the school records of his son, who had been attending school since 2016. Instead, the records indicated the woman's second husband as the guardian of the child. The court observed that marital conflicts had arisen between the separated couple, ultimately leading to the dissolution of their marriage through a divorce decree granted in June 2015 by a family court.
In her opposing affidavit, the woman did not contest the petitioner's paternity of the child. However, she asserted that her relationship with the man was highly contentious, and she expressed a reluctance to associate the petitioner's name with her minor son. She explained that her current husband has embraced the child as his own, providing paternal care and affection, and she preferred this to be reflected in the records.
The court, however, said the assertions in the woman's reply revealed that they were driven more by emotion than by law.
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