Kerala high court

KOCHI: The Kerala high court got the unusual opportunity to name a child recently as the parents could not come to an agreement about their choices and contested each other before the court.

It fell upon justice AK Jayasankaran Nambiar to pick a name for a five-year-old child from central Kerala as the father, who is a Hindu, rooted for the name ‘ Abhinav Sachin ’ whereas the mother, a Christian, wanted ‘ Johan Mani Sachin ’. The court finally decided upon ‘Johan Sachin’ and ordered for issuing a birth certificate with that name.

Both the father and the mother had filed separate petitions before the court challenging Kottayam municipality’s demand for a court order to issue a birth certificate as the parents couldn’t come to an agreement there too.

The couple had got married as per Christian rites on August 29, 2010 and as per Hindu rites the next day. After two children were born, the first in 2011 and the second in 2013, the relationship between the parents strained and they approached the family court for a divorce. While the divorce case is still pending, a birth certificate became a necessity for the second child to obtain school admission.

‘Johan Mani Sachin’ was sought by the mother citing baptism certificate whereas the father argued that ‘Abhinav Sachin’ was the name agreed upon at the 28th-day ceremony.

The wife informed the court that she is willing to give up ‘Mani’ from the name ‘Johan Mani Sachin’ as a gesture of reconciliation. However, the husband insisted on ‘Abhinav’ instead of ‘Johan’.

In the judgment, the court said, “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 interest 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 (The husband’s first name is Sachin). This course of action would be in the interests of the minor child.”

