X Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what one dies inside us while we live(1). This case unbundle the trauma of a couple in a live-in relationship, isolation of a single mother, love of mother for her child, rights of biological father, entangled in legal vortex.

(2.) The couple in this revision, John and Anitha (names changed to protect their privacy) met during the tragic floods in the year 2018 happened in Kerala. They are active in NGOs. John is a Christian and Anitha is Hindu by their faith. Anitha is from Thrissur. Soon the couple realised that their intimacy knew no bounds to chart a new path in their life. They start to live together at Ernakulam, 65 kms away from the parental house of Anitha. Opposition came from their own kith and kin. They waited to officially marry once their 1 Norman Cousins Author of Anotomy of illness parents are convinced. But the biological instincts of the couple could not be arrested. Anitha became pregnant in the month of May 2019. She gave birth to a baby girl on

(3.) /2/2020 in the Government Hospital, Aluva. The birth certificate indicates names of father and mother of the child. The entire case perhaps revolves around the importance of the birth certificate, to decide the outcome of this case. 3. John is an artist. He seems to have travelled to Karnataka to act in a Malayalam Film. He appears to have broke the relationship with Anitha for a while or remained elusive (as narrated in the revision memorandum). Anxious Anitha made attempts to contact John; but in vain. Isolated, desperate and repressed Anitha had no option but to approach the Child Welfare Committee, Ernakulam, and handed over the child to the Committee on 8/5/2020. She executed a Deed of Surrender on 8/6/2020. Thereafter, she constantly kept in touch with the Committee and the Child Care Institution where the child was put up, to keep a track of the wellbeing of the child. Chat messages of Anitha with the Social Worker depicts how vulnerable it is for a woman becoming mother not in a legally wedded relation. Desperation and plight of the motherhood reflected through the chat messages that depicts the care for the baby from the womb of the person, Anitha.