Dear Sirs,
We are facing a strange issue and we are not able to find a solution to our problem.
In the year 2007, I got divorced from my husband by mutual consent. I have a daughter from the wedlock. She is 15 years old now and is in Standard X. However, in the divorce decree, there is no mention of custody rights or visitation rights. The only thing mentioned is that the biological father will pay a fixed amount every month for the maintenance of the daughter.
I remarried in 2009. The relation between my girl child and my second husband is healthy and loving. However, we were not aware of the fact that we need to get an NOC from the biological father for adoption. We straight-away changed her name via a gazette to reflect the new fathers name and surname. We submitted the name change documents in the school and got her name changed when she was in the 4th Standard. All her bank accounts, Aadhar card etc are having her changed name with the second father's name.
Recently, when we applied for getting her passport made, the passport officials asked for custody and adoption documents. It was just 2 days back that we realized that we should have done this.
The biological father has refused to give the NOC for adoption letter. Because of this, in the current scenario, the issues that we are facing are :
1. As she is in Standard X, her marksheet, School leaving certificates etc will have the name of the second father.
2. But her actual legal name should still have biological father's name.
So my questions are (with the best interest of the daughter's future in mind) :
1. In the current scenario, is it best that we revert her name to include the biological father's name in the school by making an affidavit and submitting newspaper ads, thus having all her future documents reflecting this? With this step, we will need to get all her documents and various IDs updated accordingly.
2. Can she legally change her name and make the second father as her adopted father, without the NOC of the biological father, after she becomes 18 years of age?
3. If yes to the above question, should we continue as it is (with the daughter's name having second father's name in all her school certificates and ID cards) or should we revert to the first name for the next 3 years?
