A 12-year-old girl will not be able to fly abroad thanks to the triple talaq issue of her parents. The passport authorities refused to recognise the customary divorce certificate submitted by her mother issued by a kazi. The authorities insisted on a court decree to issue the child’s passport.
After the divorce, the girl’s mother married a Hindu man. She applied to replace the girl’s biological father’s name with the adoptive father’s on her daughter’s passport. The change could not be made due to a lack of proper paperwork and the girl’s passport was put on hold.
The mother then moved the Gujarat high court. She pleaded with the court to direct the Regional Passport Office (RPO) to make the changes in the girl’s passport and reissue it so that she could travel abroad.
The RPO’s counsel submitted that the woman had not procured any valid documents of her divorce. Moreover, she supplied only a notarised adoption deed. It was argued that unless some document issued by a competent authority is produced before the passport authority, no passport can be issued to the minor child.
After a preliminary hearing, Justice Nirzar Desai on Tuesday noted that the certificate of divorce was issued by a kazi and the document of the child custody agreement and adoption deed was also notarised and not a registered one. “At this juncture, it is made clear that unless some valid document issued by a competent authority is produced before the court, no direction can be issued to the respondent authority to issue passport which would allow a minor child to travel abroad,” the court order reads. Further hearing on this petition has been posted on December 12.
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