The High Court has rejected a woman’s application to obtain the birth certificate of a boy she claimed was born from her husband’s alleged extramarital affair.
The woman sought access to the child’s birth record, identifying him as J, as part of her efforts to support a divorce petition against her husband. However, J’s biological mother, C, denied having an affair with the woman’s husband and disputed that he was the boy’s father.
The National Registration Department informed the court that while C was recorded as J’s mother, the section relating to his father stated “maklumat tidak diperolehi”, meaning the information was unknown.
Judicial Commissioner Nixon Kennedy Kumbong dismissed the application, describing it as speculative and effectively a fishing expedition for evidence. He said the woman was seeking the document not to establish an existing fact, but to investigate a suspicion that had been expressly denied by C.
The judge said discovery applications could not be used to explore possibilities, verify conjecture or search for evidence in the hope that a claim might eventually be uncovered.
Nixon also highlighted that J’s birth certificate contained sensitive personal information, including the child’s identity, details of his mother, date of birth and place of birth.
He stressed that courts take the protection of minors’ personal information seriously as a matter of public policy, particularly where access is sought by someone with no legal relationship to the child.
“The applicant is neither a parent nor a guardian of the child. She has no legal relationship with the child and no statutory entitlement to access the child’s birth record,” he said.
The ruling means the woman will not be able to obtain J’s birth certificate through the application, leaving the disputed allegation over the boy’s parentage unsubstantiated by the requested document.
