A father's name may not be a mandatory requirement to acquire a passport if Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj were to accept Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi's request to modify rules in view of "increasing number of single parents".
This comes as a response to a petition on Change.Org started by a single mother, Priyanka Gupta, asking for a passport for her daughter without her father's name in it.
A series of tweets from WCD ministry read, "Have received petitions where mother/ child have insisted that name of the father should not be mentioned in passport. The petitions involved cases in which the father had abandoned the mother & the Court had granted custody of the child to the mother...
"The current guidelines for passports warrant the name of the father as a mandatory requirement. The Delhi HC on July 15, 2016, stated that it was not essential to mention the name of the father if the mother & child so desired...
"Statistics reveal that number of single parents in the country is increasing both by way of conscious decision & by breakdown of marriages...
"Smt @ManekaGandhiBJP has requested Smt @SushmaSwaraj ji to get necessary modifications done in the rules for issuance of passports."
The Change.Org petitioner Priyanka Gupta reacted to these tweets and said, "This is a positive move. If something comes out of it then it will be a blessing for all single mothers. We can live with dignity."
The petition, which has been signed by over 25,000 supporters, narrates how Priyanka had to single-handedly raise her daughter after her husband abandoned her because she delivered a baby girl.
