32 year old man now gets recognition of his real Hindu name, waited 14 years

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday allowed a 32-year-old man to change his name in his school, college and board records. The court noticed many differences in his documents. The division bench of Justices Ravindra Ghuge and Ashwin Bhobe was hearing a petition pending for 14 years, in which the man had sought to change his name in his birth record and educational certificate from Gregory Thomas to Milind Vinod Seth.

Miling Senth went to court for the first time when he was 18 years old. He told that his parents got married in a church in 1992. At that time his father had converted to Christianity and changed his name. However, in the petitioner’s birth certificate issued in 1993, his name was Hindu and his father’s real identity was Hindu. When he got his School Leaving Certificate in 2009. In it, his Christian name was written as Gregory, but his religion was written as Hindu. The same name was also in his Secondary School Certificate and Higher Secondary Certificate.

Had to face identity mismatch

After this, Seth gave an affidavit to change his Christian name to Hindu name and in October 2011 also approached the Deputy Director of Education to get his name changed in his college records. When no relief was received, he finally approached the Bombay High Court. While accepting the petition, the court called it a strange case in which Seth had to face identity mismatch due to the inter-faith marriage of his parents.

The court took note of a 2019 judgment of the Bombay High Court which had said that after a student leaves secondary school, details such as name or date of birth cannot be changed, except to correct ‘obvious mistakes’. However, the bench said that Seth had unfortunately been living with a parallel identity for years.

The bench said that although no litigant can be allowed to change the name as per his choice merely because he does not like a particular name or likes a particular name, but in these circumstances a change is necessary without setting any precedent. The court directed the concerned schools, colleges and SSC and HSC boards to issue new documents with the correct name within 30 days.