“It is Fundamental Right of a Citizen to Choose and have a Name”: Allahabad High Court Orders to Issue High School and Intermediate Certificates with Changed Name

It is fundamental right of a citizen to choose and have a name: Allahabad High Court orders to issue High School and Intermediate certificates with changed name

Allahabad High Court has recently given an important order regarding name change in High School and Intermediate certificates.

Canceling the order of the Secretary of the Board of Secondary Education, the court has ordered the certificate to be issued to the petitioner in a changed name.

Justice Ajay Bhanot’s bench was hearing a petition filed in this case, in which the petitioner had demanded that his name be changed to MD Sameer Rao in place of Shahnawaz.

Canceling the order issued by the secretary on December 24, 2020, the court has ordered the petitioner to issue high school and intermediate certificates with the changed name.

The Court held that the fundamental right enshrined in Articles 19 (1) (a) and 21 of the Constitution gives every citizen the right to keep and change his name.

In this case, the name of the petitioner was recorded as Shahnawaz in the high school and intermediate certificates issued by the Board of Secondary Education in the year 2013 and 2015 respectively. The petitioner had changed his name from Shahnawaz to MD Rao after converting his religion in 2020, after which the petitioner had applied for the certificate to be issued to the council with the changed name. But the Council had rejected the application for change of name of the petitioner citing Intermediate Regulation 40.

As per Regulation 40, the candidate is allowed to change the name within 3 years of taking the exam.

Terming Intermediate Regulation 40 as contrary to Article 25 of the Constitution, the Court rejected the Secretary’s order and ordered the petitioner to issue the certificate in a changed name.