Invoking Karna’s struggle for paternal recognition, court orders to add father’s name to 13-year-old IVF child’s records

Drawing parallels with Karna’s lifelong struggle for recognition in the Mahabharata and recalling Charles Dickens’ scathing observation that “the law is an ass”, the Kerala High Court has stepped in to erase what it called a psychological wound carried by a 13-year-old girl, born out of IVF, whose father’s name was left blank in her birth certificate.

Holding that the law must record life rather than resist it, the court directed authorities to recognise the child’s acknowledged biological father and issue a corrected birth certificate.

Justice P V Kunhikrishnan delivered the judgment on June 1 while allowing a petition filed by a woman and her husband.

Justice P V Kunhikrishnan asked if a birth register, which is the very first public document in a person’s life, can become a permanent scar on a citizen’s record.

The court was hearing their challenge to the refusal of local authorities to add the man’s name to the birth certificate of their elder daughter, who was born through IVF in 2012, before the couple married.

“I considered the psychological trauma of a child born to an unwed mother, from the angle of the character ‘Karna’ in the ancient epic ‘Mahabharata’. Here, in the present, the second petitioner is the child’s father, but the law does not permit it. Viewing from another angle to the story of “Mahabharata”, it can be said that “Karna” is not alone; his parents also want to declare his paternity to the world,” the court asked on June 1.

Stark question

The question before this court is “stark”.

Can a technicality arising from an adult conflict arising at the time of the child’s birth lead to denying a child the fundamental right to identity guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India?

Can a birth register become a permanent scar on a citizen’s record, which is the very first public document in their life?

A blank space in the birth register can wound deeper than words to the first child, especially when the second child’s father’s name is correctly shown.

Can the law be a barrier in front of these loving parents and the first child whose father’s name is not in the birth register?

Who was Karna?

A complex character in the Mahabharata, Karna was born to princess Kunti before her marriage through a divine boon granted by the sun god.

Abandoned at birth, and raised by a charioteer’s family, he grew up unaware of his royal lineage and faced repeated humiliation over his social status despite being one of the greatest warriors of his generation.

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His struggle for acceptance, recognition and identity became a defining theme of his life. Even after discovering that he was Kunti’s eldest son and the brother of the Pandavas, Karna remained torn between his birth and upbringing.

It is this lifelong quest for acknowledgement and the emotional burden of concealed parentage that Justice P V Kunhikrishnan invoked while discussing the psychological impact of leaving a child’s father’s name blank in official records.

Quoting from Dickens’ Oliver Twist

Mr Bumble, a character in Charles Dickens’ novel Oliver Twist, said in a courtroom that the “law is an ass”, of course, in connection with that story, the court observed.

The novel was published in 1838, which means it is about two centuries old. Even now, some legal provisions in our country are like an ass. But in such situations, it is the duty of the constitutional court to interpret such laws with a human touch.

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Love story, IVF treatment, missing name

The case traces its origins to a relationship that began between the couple when they were working in Dubai.

According to the judgment, the couple fell in love but faced opposition from the man’s family.

Though they had not married, the woman decided to become a mother through IVF treatment using sperm donated by the man.

The treatment was kept secret from both families.

Their daughter was born on November 14, 2012, at a hospital in Adoor.

Since the woman was then officially a single mother, the father’s name was left blank in the birth records maintained by the grama panchayat.

The couple later married on February 7, 2018. Their second daughter was born on January 14, 2020, and her birth certificate correctly reflected both parents’ names.

The contrast between the two sisters’ official records eventually became the centre of the legal dispute.

Although the girl had been admitted to school and her Aadhaar records had already been updated, her birth certificate continued to carry a blank father’s column.

The high court noted that the omission could become a source of stigma and psychological distress as she grew older, describing it as a “question mark on her legitimacy” and a potential lifelong scar on her identity.

Family court settlement acknowledged paternity

The judgment records that disputes between the couple had earlier led to proceedings before the family court in Kottayam.

In March 2020, the matter was resolved through mediation.

The man acknowledged that he was the girl’s biological father and agreed that his name should be entered in all official records, including her birth certificate, Aadhaar card, passport and school records.

The couple also agreed to change the child’s name, which included her father’s name.

However, when the parents approached the panchayat to make the corrections, authorities refused, citing a 2017 circular and the absence of any statutory provision permitting the addition of a father’s name where a child had originally been registered under a single parent.

‘Blank space can wound more deeply than words’

At the heart of the judgment is the court’s concern for the emotional and psychological impact on the child. “A blank space can wound more deeply than words,” Justice Kunhikrishnan wrote.

“For a child, the blank space against the father’s name in her birth certificate is not merely an empty column, but it is a question mark on her legitimacy, a whisper of stigma, a wound inflicted by her parents’ past quarrel,” the court said.

The judge noted that there was no dispute regarding the child’s parentage. Both parents acknowledged her as their daughter, and the father had expressly accepted his biological relationship with her.

“The issue is not one of paternity, it is of posterity. What will be the psychological trauma when she becomes an adult? The parents’ mistake will be a wound to the child,” the court said.

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Court invokes extraordinary powers

The court accepted that the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969, contains no specific provision allowing such a correction.

Nevertheless, it held that the high court’s extraordinary powers under Article 226 of the Constitution could be invoked to prevent injustice in exceptional cases.

“This Court sits to ensure that the law does not become the last instrument of psychological cruelty to a child who was never at fault. The law is meant to record life, not to resist it. In this case, life has moved on, but the law has refused to keep pace,” the judgment said.

What court ordered

Allowing the petition, the court quashed the panchayat’s rejection order and directed the authorities to:

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change the child’s name to include the father’s name

add the father’s name as in the birth register

make the correction through a marginal entry without altering the original record;

issue a fresh birth certificate within 30 days.

The ruling is likely to have implications for cases involving children born through assisted reproductive technologies, live-in relationships and single-parent registrations, where parents later seek to regularise official records.

More fundamentally, the judgment sends a message that procedural rigidity cannot be allowed to overshadow a child’s right to identity, dignity and belonging.