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MUMBAI: While applying for a passport for her child, an unwed mother will have to declare how she conceived, the Union government told Bombay high court on Thursday.The reply was to a query by a division bench of Justices V M Kanade and Anuja Prabhudessai, which heard a petition by a woman challenging the passport authority’s refusal to include her step-father’s name in her passport. When the HC was parting with the matter, Justice Kanade asked, “We were wondering what happens in case of unwed mothers?”Advocate Purnima Bhatia, appearing for the foreign ministry, said 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. She added the details are in the passport manual, a classified document.The judges exchanged surprised glances and murmured. Sania Akram (21, name changed) move d court challenging the refusal of the regional passport officer to issue passport in the name of her step-father as recorded in her school/college certificates, saying she must obtain a court order appointing him as her guardian. The officer also refused to alternately include the name of her mother, who has permanent custody of Sania.Want passport quickly? Tatkal is the only waySania’s petition said her biological father had abandoned her after birth and she considers her biological father’s name a “stigma”.The passport manual was produced in court, but Bhatia said it cannot be given to the petitioner as it is a classified document.Sania’s advocate, Altaf Khan, said the passport authority was relying on standing instructions based on the passport manual. These instructions state that only the biological father’s name must be mentioned on the passport. “The Passport Act is silent (on the matter). It relates to minors. I am a major now. My fundamental right to travel to seek education is at stake,” said Khan, quoting Sania. The judges remarked that the passport manual cannot be a classified document and is in the nature of internal instructions. “These are just guidelines and do not have the force of law ,” said Justice Kanade. The judges will decide Sania’s plea on November 12, along with a similar case.It is shocking that the government should ask an unwed mother how she had a child before giving a passport. The circumstances in which she had the child are no business of the state, it is entirely a private matter. If the laws, or the rules framed under them, currently make it mandatory for such information to be provided, it is time the law was changed. All that is germane as far as the government is concerned is whether the child is indeed hers. As long as that is established, nothing else should be asked for.