KASHISH GUPTA Vs. CENTRAL BOARD OF SECONDARY EDUCATION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) "What's in a name"?

(2.) Young Miss Dinky Gupta, on attaining a reasonable level of maturity, for reasons purely personal to her, decided to change her name to Kashish Gupta. State of Kerala accepted petitioner's wish to change her name and effected a Gazette notification in 2017 to that effect, as is seen from Ext. P1. It mentions the details of her birth certificate, her Passport number, Aadhar Card number, thereby giving sufficient details as to the identity of the petitioner. Pursuant to the Gazette notification, change of name was carried out in the birth certificate of the petitioner as is revealed from Ext. P2. A "one and the same" certificate was also issued by the village officer stating that the two differing names of the petitioner refer to the same person itself.

(3.) It is seen that, by the time the aforesaid processes were completed, petitioner had written her All India Secondary School Examination in 2018. Certificate issued by the CBSE, which is produced as Ext. P4 contains petitioner's former name, since obviously, it was based on the records available with the school. However, the School authorities on the basis of the certificates produced before it, recorded the change of name. At the request of the parents of the Petitioner, the Principal of the School submitted Ext. P6 application to the 2 nd respondent, requesting to carry out the change of name in the CBSE certificates and records. Surprisingly, an e-mail communication is seen sent to the school, which is produced as Ext. P7, wherein an information is given that "The desired change in Candidate's name cannot be considered in the light of CBSE notification dated 01-02-2018 as per rule No. 69.1 (i) duly incorporated in the Examination Bye Laws. Therefore, your request for the said change in Candidate's name has been rejected by the Board." Inspite of the above e-mail communication, Petitioner was issued with the admit card for the main examination of CBSE for the year 2020, with the name 'Kashish Gupta' and it is submitted that she has in fact appeared for two of the examinations that were held prior to the declaration of the nationwide lockdown. Since an anomaly of far-reaching consequences may result if the variance in the name of the petitioner is not corrected, petitioner has approached this Court, seeking a writ of mandamus, to the CBSE to correct her name in the mark sheet of All India Secondary School Examination 2018, as well as in all other records maintained by them.