New Delhi: It was a landmark judgement in many ways. The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that there was no need for the consent of the father in giving guardianship of a child to an unwed mother.The court order came on a petition by a woman who is a gazetted officer in the government. The woman had challenged the procedural necessity of disclosing the identity of the father and issuing notice to him on a plea seeking sole guardianship of the child by the unwed mother.
The mother had contended that the man stayed with her barely for two months and did not even know the existence of the child. The woman’s plea for sole guardianship in the Supreme Court in 2011 was based on the Passport appication form – Its not mandatory to identify the father in the said form. A trial court in Delhi and the High Court rejected her pleas for sole guardianship
The apex court bench headed by Justice Vikramajit Sen made this statement while recalling the earlier order of a guardianship court and asking it to re-examine the plea by the unwed mother seeking guardianship of the child without issuing notice to the father.
The court said that the lower courts, including high court, lost sight of the issue that was before them to be examined and decided the matter without taking into account the welfare of the child.
The judgement by the Supreme Court was largely well received on social media with many seeing it as a sign of progress in the Indian judiciary.
