Want mother’s name on documents? Get ready for the runaround

It was a long struggle for Suvam to get his ID cards printed with only his mother’s name

The PAN allotment process is perhaps not as cumbersome as it used to be. But for Suvam Sinha, it took seven years to get his PAN card and other documents — the way he wished them. That is, without his father’s name on them.

 On February 11, the 23-year-old celebrated his victory with a silent prayer on his lips and an emotional long distance chat with his mother, Smriti Sinha, who works as the country manager of a pharmaceutical company in Kathmandu, Nepal. Suvam studies and works as a linguist in Adelaide, Australia.

Suvam fought an embittered battle to get all his primary identity cards, which he is entitled to as an Indian citizen, printed with only his mother’s name as the legal guardian. The PAN card was the last government document he was waiting for after facing multiple rejections.

Though the Income Tax department changed its rules in 2018 to allow taxpayers with single parents to provide their mother’s name instead of mandatorily providing their father’s name as well as the choice between mother’s or father’s name appearing on the card, the e-application till last month didn’t accept the same. When Suvam applied online on February 2, it asked for his father’s name yet again, before the system was updated following the intervention of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR).

Suvam’s struggle over the years was fraught with frustration — ever since he wished to exercise his right as a child to decide which parent’s name he wanted in his documents.

“Why should father’s name be the only measure of identity. My father was never present in my life, I have never had any relationship with him,” he said.

After completion of High School in Kolkata, when Suvam approached his school principal for the School Leaving Certificate (SLC) without his father’s name, little did he realise the battle was going to be a long drawn one. His father is from Nepal and mother from Bhagalpur, Bihar, and his parents separated when he was two years old.