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Judgment
The petitioner has approached this Court aggrieved by the inaction on the part of the respondent Municipality to correct the name of her mother in
her Birth Certificate, a copy of which is produced as Ext.P1 in the writ petition. It is submitted on behalf of the petitioner that the petitioner's mother
was originally of Christian faith and the father of the petitioner is a Muslim. While the mother's name was initially Sherly A.R., consequent to her
marriage she embraced Islamic religion on 01.03.2020 and changed her name to 'Shahna Anvar' after publishing a notification dated 14.07.2020 in the
Kerala Gazette dated 13.10.2020. The Adhar Card of the petitioner's mother also shows her name as 'Shahna Anvar'. It would appear that in the
Birth Certificate issued to the petitioner, her mother's name was mistakenly shown as 'Shahana Anwar' instead of 'Shahna Anvar'. It is for the
purposes of correcting the said error in the Birth Certificate that the petitioner approached the respondent.
The respondent, however, expressed its inability to consider the request for change of the entries in the Birth Register, inter alia, citing the
Government Circular dated 10.05.2017, which rather than enabling the respondent to effect a correction of the name in the Birth Certificate only
permits them to show the alleged correct name as an alternate name of the person concerned. Even the said corrections are permitted only if there is
a Gazette notification to support the alternate name. It is further submitted that the circular applies only in circumstances where there has been a
change in the name of the parent by way of Gazette publication after the birth of the child and the issuance of a Birth Certificate originally.
I have heard the learned counsel for the petitioner as also the learned Standing Counsel for the respondent Municipality.
On a consideration of the facts and circumstances of the case and the submissions made across the Bar, I am of the view that inasmuch as the
petitioner's mother has effected a change in name through a Gazette notification and the correction in the name of the mother in the Birth Certificate
is only to the limited extent of correcting the spelling in the name from 'Shahana Anwar' to 'Shahna Anvar,' for the purposes of ensuring a uniformity
in the various identity documents such as the Birth Certificate of the daughter as also the Adhar Card obtained by the petitioner's mother, the ends of
justice would be met by directing the respondent Municipality to issue a corrected Birth Certificate to the petitioner in which the mother's name is
corrected as “Shahna Anvarâ€. The respondent shall do the needful and issue a corrected Birth Certificate within three weeks from the date of
receipt of a copy of this judgment. The petitioner shall produce a copy of this judgment together with a copy of the writ petition before the respondent
Municipality for further action.
The writ petition is disposed as above.