HC: Why can’t single mom’s kids get passport?

Bombay high court has questioned whether a single mother could be denied a passport for her child at a time when live-in relationships are legally accepted.
The query came from a bench of Justice VM Kanade and Justice AR Joshi when told that the fouryear-old child of an unwed mother was yet to receive her passport. She was among the three who challenged the passport authority’s insistence to include the biological father’s name. The bench was told that two of the petitioners, who are major, have received their passports.
The authority’s advocate said the passport manual, which acts as a guide to the staff, was being revised keeping in mind the high court’s various or ders. The bench said the “manual is old” and does not take into consideration new developments and other judgments.
The bench sought a list from a petitioner’s advocate Raju Moray on “common problems faced” so that it can formulate questions for the Centre at the next hearing.
In an earlier hearing, the Centre had observed that an unwed mother would have to declare how she had conceived the child.
The advocate, appearing for the foreign ministry, had said that an unwed mother must file an affidavit stating “how she has conceived” and “if she was raped” and why she does not want the father’s name included.