Rape declaration of unwed mother for child's passport?

MUMBAI: An unwed mother will have to declare how she conceived the baby while applying for the passport, the Union government told Bombay high court on Thursday.

The reply was given by the government to a query by a division bench of Justices V M Kanade and Anuja Prabhudessai, which heard a petition by a woman challenging the passport authority's refusal to include her step-father's name in her passport.

When the question "We were wondering what happens in case of unwed mothers?" was asked. The Advocate Purnima Bhatia, on behalf of foreign ministry, said an unwed mother must file an affidavit stating "how she has conceived" and "if she was raped" and why she does not want the father's name included. She also added the details are in the passport manual, a classified document.