Stepfather Can't Replace Biological Father On Birth Certificate: High Court

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has refused to allow the name of a minor's biological father to be replaced by her mother's second husband on her birth certificate, holding that a subsequent remarriage cannot alter the parentage recorded at the time of birth.

The petition sought a direction to the authorities to replace Jagjit Singh's name with Balwinder Kumar's as the child's father on a birth certificate issued on April 25, 2022.

The plea was filed after the child's mother remarried Balwinder Kumar and sought to have his name recorded as the child's father.

The High Court relied on its earlier ruling in Pooja Goyal v. Government of Haryana and others, which dealt with a similar issue.

The court held that a birth certificate is a statutory record of a child's birth and parentage. The subsequent dissolution of the biological parents' marriage or the remarriage of either parent does not, by itself, alter those facts.

The court made clear that parentage recorded at the time of birth cannot simply be changed because of subsequent developments in the family structure.

It consequently found no grounds to entertain the plea seeking replacement of the father's name on the birth certificate.

The ruling distinguishes a child's statutory birth record and subsequent changes in family circumstances, holding that remarriage alone cannot rewrite the parentage recorded at the time of birth.