Mention of Stepfather’s Name in Passport No Issue: High Court
Bengaluru: In a landmark judgement, the state high court has ruled that a passport-holder can have his / her stepfather’s name in the place of the father in the document.
A 24-year-old woman from the city had applied for a passport in the regional passport office here.
In the column where the father’s name had to be mentioned, she had entered her stepfather’s name, because her mother had separated from her husband and married again.
Since the applicant had a name of the father different from her genetic father’s, the passport office had rejected her application.
Hence she filed an application to the high court seeking a direction to the passport office to accept her application.
Justice A S Bopanna who heard the case cited judgements handed down by other courts in the country which allowed it to be done and directed the passport office in Bengaluru to recognize her case.
The court also stressed the fact that her foster father had been looking after her for many years.
In most of her educational records also, her stepfather’s name had been mentioned. Hence she had to mention the latter’s name in the passport application, the court ruled.