The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the State government to consider the representation made by a woman from Kadavur in Karur district who had sought a direction to authorities to allow her daughter to use the first letter of her name as the initial.
Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy directed the Director of School Education and Assistant Director of Government Examinations to consider the representation made by the petitioner, M. Pothumponnu. The court took note of the fact that a government order issued earlier had allowed the use of the first letter of the mother’s name as the child’s initial.
The court took into account the fact that government documents, including Aadhaar card, ration card and school identity card, carried the first letter of the mother’s name as the child’s initial. The court said the woman had made out a case to consider her representation favourably.
The petitioner said her daughter P. Kaviya was studying in Class IX at Kadavur Government High School. She said her husband had deserted the family and she was living with her parents. She was taking care of the family and the educational expenses of her daughter.
At the time of admitting her daughter to the school, she had provided the first letter of her name as the initial to the child and the government records carried the same. Her daughter preferred the first letter of the name of her mother as the initial and not that of her father, she said.
Under these circumstances, her daughter applied for a scholarship examination. But, the government school authorities advised her to provide the first letter of the father’s name as the initial. She said the authorities had told her that the issue would be raised at the time of Class X public examination too.
The court directed the authorities concerned to consider the representation so that the student could apply for scholarship examinations.
