Father seeks Court’s intervention

By Lakmal Sooriyagoda

A lawyer has filed a writ petition before the Court of Appeal challenging the Registrar General’s decision to reject a birth registration form submitted on behalf of his child, on the basis that the Ethnic Group of the father was not mentioned.

Attorney-at-Law Nuwan Bopage has filed this petition on behalf of his one-year-old son Yukthika Abheetha Bopage naming Registrar General and Attorney General as respondents.

The first petitioner, Nuwan Bopage states the Registrar General’s Department has refused to accept his request that the father’s race be mentioned as either “Human” or that it be kept blank.

The Petitioner state that his son, the second petitioner was born on November 27, 2020 at a private hospital in Colombo 05. The Petitioner states that on or about February 9, 2021, he submitted the form titled ‘Particulars for Registration of a Birth” at the Registrar of Births and Marriages, Kirulapone Division.

The Petitioner states that he entered the column titled Ethnic Group in the section titled-Details of the Father as ‘Human”. The Petitioners state that along with the said, “Particulars for Registration of a Birth form, he handed over a letter requesting that the father’s race be mentioned as either “Human” or that it be kept blank.
The Petitioners state that the officers at the office in Kirulapone stated that they could not accept the said form on the basis that an Ethnic Group of the father was not provided, and informed him that they could not proceed with the registration of the birth unless the permission of the Registrar General was obtained while refusing to accept the application.

He further said on the very next day, he wrote a letter to the first respondent Registrar General requesting that his son be provided with a Birth Certificate as requested by the Petitioner.

The Petitioner states that the respondent’s position is that the birth cannot be registered without an Ethnic Group being provided as stipulated in the relevant Handbook, wherein it is stated that in Sri Lanka, the ethnic groups are -Sinhala, “Sri Lankan Tamil’, “Indian Tamil’, ‘Sri Lankan Moor” and so on.

The petitioner is seeking a writ of certiorari quashing the decision of the Registrar General to refuse to register the birth of his son in the Registry of Births wherein the Father’s Ethnic Group is provided as -Sri Lankan or left blank and provide a Birth Certificate accordingly.

The Court of Appeal two-judge-bench comprising Justices Sobhitha Rajakaruna and Justice Dhammika Ganepola fixed the petition for support on February 17. The Attorney General’s stance regarding this petition is to be informed on the next hearing date.  This petition had been filed through counsel Ramzi Bacha.