'Protected wife despite caught cheating; men also have dignity', says Kerala HC while considering Thrissur woman's petition

KOCHI: While considering a case, the High Court reminded that, like women, men also have dignity and self-respect. When a man's dignity is violated, society should stand by him. Justice P.V. Kunhikrishnan's order came for a petition seeking to change the father's name in the birth certificate of a child born out of an extramarital affair.

The petition was filed by a young woman from Thrissur and her paramour turned second husband. The argument was that otherwise, the eight-year-old child's education would be interrupted. The complainant has a son from her first husband. But while he was working in Bengaluru, she fell in love with another person and had a baby girl with him.

The husband and wife fought over this matter often. The first husband took the protection of the elder child, while the woman eloped with her lover with the second child. By this time, she also got a divorce from her first husband. A court order is mandatory to change the father's name on the birth certificate to be presented before the registrar. Following this, the woman and her second husband filed a petition.

The court also directed that if the petitioners submit a new application to change the father's name on the certificate, the concerned authority must take a legal decision within 30 days.

The court deemed the first husband’s situation unfortunate and said that he might be going through a severe mental ordeal. Even though the child was not his, the first husband did not ask for his name to be removed from the birth certificate. Despite knowing about his wife's extramarital affair, he protected her and the child for six years. When she eloped, he filed a missing persons complaint with the police, stating that it was his wife and daughter.

“He kept quiet, realising that if the paternity dispute became public, it would harm the child. All this is due to the first husband's dignity. The petitioners' argument lacks credibility. It is not morally and legally appropriate for the petitioner to be with someone else while the marriage was still in force. How did the school come to know that the child’s father was someone else?” The court said that although the petitioners do not deserve sympathy, it is ruling in their favour, considering the dignity of the woman's first husband and the child's future.