Recognizing the importance of the maternal line in determining a child’s surname in the best interests of a child born of a live-in relationship, the Karnataka High Court ordered the registrar of births and deaths in Bengaluru to change the eight-year-old girl’s name to reflect her Nepali mother’s surname instead of her father’s, while retaining the biological father’s name on the birth certificate.
“Where the mother is the sole carer and natural guardian, there is in fact no constitutional bar to recognizing the maternal line as a feature of the child’s surname. Recognition of the maternal identity does not diminish paternal status but affirms parity,” the court said.
Just a social convention
The presumption that a child must bear the father’s surname without exception is not a constitutional mandate but a social convention, the court said, noting that such a convention cannot override the constitutional principle that men and women have equal standing in matters of family, parentage and identity.
Justice Suraj Govindraj issued the order, granting the petition of the minor daughter and her 30-year-old mother, whose request to change their daughter’s surname on the birth certificate was rejected by the authorities without giving a reason.
The child was born in February 2017 at KC General Hospital, Bengaluru from a live-in relationship of the petitioner-woman with a man, also of Nepalese origin. However, the child’s father subsequently expressed his reluctance to continue the relationship and left for his hometown in Nepal, completely abandoning both the mother and the child, according to the petition.
Since then, there is no interaction, communication or contribution of the father to the upbringing of the child, the mother is the sole caregiver who raises the child with the support of her maternal family, the motion stated.
The court rejected the authorities’ contention that they did not have the power to make such a name change, saying that the Registration of Births and Deaths Act 1969 empowers the registrar to correct entries that are “defective in form or substance”, a phrase broad enough to include not only clerical errors but also errors relating to the substance of the entry.
Father’s name remains
Significantly, the court noted that the requested change did not include erasing the father’s name from the birth certificate. The father column would continue to reflect the biological father’s name, ensuring that the factual and legal recognition of paternity remains intact. The only change is the child’s surname with maternal derivation and surname, the court said.
Applying the principle of “best interests of the child”, enshrined in Article 3 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, the court held that “a change of surname will promote the identity, dignity, welfare and practical convenience of the child and is in the best interests of the child”.
Meanwhile, the court clarified that changing a child’s surname does not extinguish any rights the child may have from the biological father under any applicable law, including inheritance, succession and maintenance.
Published – 26 Feb 2026 22:47 IST
