Kerala High Court christens child as sparring parents fail to agree on name

Having reached a dead end in a dispute, the Kerala High Court has assigned a name to a child, after his estranged parents couldn’t agree on one. The child, now named Johan Sachin by the High Court, was in need of a birth certificate in order to apply for admission to a school..The parents of the child, an inter-religious couple, were married in 2010. After the birth of their second child, the parents grew apart and eventually filed cases for dissolution of marriage, which are pending in the Family Court..Once the second child reached the school-going age, the need for a birth certificate arose. However, the parents could not agree on a name for him, as a consequence of which the Registrar of Births & Deaths of the Municipality could not assign a birth certificate. This led both parents to file individual petitions in the Kerala High Court..In the High Court, the father of the child insisted that he be named ‘Abhinav Sachin’, while the mother wanted the child to be christened ‘Johan Mani Sachin’, the name on the baptism certificate. At this point, the High Court saw no choice but to take it upon itself to solve the problem..Keeping in view that the child urgently required a name in order to get admitted to a school, Justice Jayasankaran Nambiar held,.“Taking note of the differences between the parents, I am of the view that, as a conciliatory measure and with a view to pacify both the parents of the child, it would be in the interests of justice to accede to the wishes of both the parents to the extent possible and therefore, assign the name “Johan Sachin” to the second child of the petitioners in both these writ petitions….…The name “Johan” would represent the wishes of the mother of the child and the name “Sachin”, as a surname would satisfy the requirement of the father of the child as the said name would identify the child as his. This course of action would be in the interests of the minor child, who is now in the custody of the mother, with occasional custody granted to the father as per the directions of the family court.”.Thus, the Court disposed of the petitions filed by the parents, directing the Registrar (Births & Deaths) to issue a birth certificate to the child bearing the name ‘Johan Sachin’ within two weeks..Read the judgment: