HC directs Panvel civic body to issue birth cert to kid with cancer

Mumbai: The Bombay high court directed the Panvel Municipal Corporation (PMC) to issue a birth certificate to a four-year-old blood cancer patient who was born during the Covid-19 pandemic."Considering the extreme urgency" and "in particular the condition of S", Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Neela Gokhale on Monday allowed his father's petition stating "we deem it appropriate, in the peculiar facts of this case, to direct the respondent Panvel Municipal Corporation to forthwith issue a birth certificate in the name of S…".The boy's parents married in 2013. He was born on March 23, 2021, at Neel Clinic, New Panvel. As he was born during the pandemic, the hospital authorities inadvertently did not report his birth to PMC, resulting in the non-issuance of a birth certificate. In 2024, when the son experienced medical complications and the hospital and medical authorities asked for his birth certificate, the father approached PMC to issue it. He was told to get an order from the district magistrate/tehsildar at Panvel due to the delay.The father then filed the application under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act before the district magistrate, seeking direction for entry of his son's birth details in PMC records and to issue a birth certificate. He produced all documents, including a public notice, as directed by the magistrate.His advocates, Deepali Bagla and Prashant Nakati, informed the bench that present there is no district magistrate in Panvel to take up the application. In view of the urgency and the son's serious ailment, he filed the petition in HC. The judges noted that the boy is suffering from stage 4 blood cancer and requires an autologous stem cell transplant—that uses healthy blood stem cells from the body to replace damaged bone marrow—every week. Medicines are required to be procured from foreign countries, for which his birth certificate is required. PMC's advocate, Abhijeet Deshmukh, said if HC directs, the birth certificate will be issued within 48 hours.The judges accepted his statement and passed the direction. They said they passed the order "in view of the unprecedented situation" and since the district magistrate's post is vacant. "This order shall not be treated as a precedent," they clarified. Disposing of the petition, they added, "We deem it appropriate to observe that in cases such as these, the magistrate must decide the said petitions/applications expeditiously as this would lead to failure of justice."