The mother will be the guardian of the illegitimate child: The Supreme Court

Though only father's name was allowed in case of guardian, the High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh has given a historic verdict directing to accept father or mother or legal guardian as the guardian in filling all necessary forms including education. As a result of this historic judgment, the High Court recognized the mother as the guardian of the child.

The High Court bench of Justice Naima Haider and Justice Raziq Al Jalil ruled on Tuesday (January 24) after deciding on a writ petition filed by the mother in the name of the educational institution to fill the form and take the exam. In the High Court judgment, children without father's identity, children of sex workers whose father is unknown can fill the form only with the mother's name.

In the observation of the High Court held that the Constitution has given equal rights to all. Thus, it is unconstitutional that a child will not be able to fill the form and will not get a passport if only the name of the father is not there. The matter being unconstitutional and against the rules of equality enshrined in the constitution, the HCD has confirmed in the verdict that father or mother will have the right to fill any form or registration only if they have the identity.

Background:

Based on the information published in various newspapers in April 2007, it is known that the Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, Rajshahi, Thakurgaon district refused to issue the admit card to a girl to participate in the SSC examination due to the fact that the student could not fill the father's name in the form as required before participating in the secondary school certificate examination. It should be noted that after the father's departure without any recognition of the mother and the child, the girl grew up with the sole love of her mother.

Later, based on the information obtained on the proper investigation of the incident and the demand to establish the recognition of the mother as the guardian of the child, on August 2, 2009, 3 human rights organizations Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), Bangladesh Mahila Parishad and Nari Pakshad jointly filed a public interest writ.

On the preliminary hearing of the writ, on August 3 of that year, the bench consisting of Justice Syed Refat Ahmed and Justice Moinul Islam Chowdhury issued a ruling as to why this discriminatory provision, which is contrary to human rights, is contrary to equality and is an obstacle to access to the right to education, should not be declared as contrary to the law and unconstitutional.

At the same time, a list of information regarding the name of both the father and mother of the student is required to be mentioned compulsorily while getting the SSC examination registration card in any education board and what kind of measures are taken to participate in the examination for those eligible students who are unable to mention the identity of their father. , is directed to submit a report in that regard.

Later, on June 6, 2021 BLAST filed a supplementary affidavit in court on behalf of the petitioners. After the final hearing of the writ, the High Court fixed ‘January 24’ as the day to announce the verdict.