AHMEDABAD, FEB 28
When many communities are holding agitations and making demands to include them in the OBC list, a 23-year old youth approached the Gujarat High Court to shed his old identity and embrace the name and surname of his mother, who belonged to the general category.
Kaushal told the HC that he wanted to shed the ‘other backward class’ identity attached to his father’s name because it could hamper his job and marriage prospects. The court has directed the concerned authority to make necessary changes in Kaushal’s name from ‘Kaushal Ajaykumar Chavda’ to ‘Kaushal Dakshaben Hedav’ in his birth certificate in eight weeks.
Kaushal approached the HC after the registrar at the Rajkot Municipal Corporation refused to change Kaushal’s name upon his request last year. Kaushal is pursuing an MBA in an Ahmedabad college. He was born in August 1997. He claimed that his mother committed suicide a year after his birth due to harassment on part of his father. Hence, he was brought up by his maternal grandparents, The Times of India reported.
On why he wanted to embrace his mother’s maiden name and surname, he told the HC that his mother’s family falls under the general/ open category and his biological father’s family comes under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category.
“Therefore, every time the petitioner is facing mental, social difficulties in taking admission in an educational institution or applying for any kind of government course or doing official paperwork or making new friend circle, etc.,” his petition read. Kaushal hopes for better prospects if general category identity is attached to his name as he put in his petition, “The petitioner submits that now he has become major and pursuing his MBA but he is having negative apprehension that after completing his master’s degree study when he will start searching for a good job and subsequently look for his bride, his present middle name and surname may create more social and legal complications in his personal and professional life.”
Apart from presenting Kaushal’s predicaments, his advocate Mehul Mehta cited various authorities to argue that Section 15 of the Registration of Births and Death Act empowers the registrar to correct a name in the register by making suitable entry.
Justice A Y Kogje last week remanded the case back to the registrar with direction to hear Kaushal and make changes in his name.
