Karnataka HC allows change of child’s surname in case involving foreign national parents

Karnataka HC has ruled that inclusion of the mother’s family name in the birth certificate of a child does not dilute or extinguish the substantive legal rights of any person, including that of the biological father.

The case arose from a live-in relationship between two Nepalese nationals in Bengaluru. Their daughter was born in Feb 2017, and a birth certificate was issued in March 2017. The child’s father later ended the relationship and returned to Nepal.

“The biological and legal relationship between the child and the father, including the child’s rights of inheritance, succession, and maintenance, remains unaltered. The change sought by the mother was merely one of nomenclature reflecting the real family environment in which the child is being raised,” said Justice Suraj Govindaraj, granting relief to a nine-year-old girl and her mother.


According to a report by The Times of India, when the mother approached authorities at Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike to delete the father’s name and substitute it with her own, the request was rejected citing Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969. She then moved the high court.

The court held that the registrar had the authority to carry out corrections and the refusal amounted to a failure to exercise statutory power. Invoking its jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution, the HC directed the issuance of a fresh birth certificate within four weeks.

Stressing the “best interest of the child”, the judge stated that children abandoned by a parent were particularly vulnerable.

(With TOI inputs)