High Court orders fresh hearing in Monalisa birth record dispute

The Madhya Pradesh High Court has set aside a municipal order changing Monalisa Bhonsle’s birth record, ruling that she was not given an opportunity to respond before the change. The court directed the Chief Municipal Officer of Maheshwar to reconsider her father’s application after giving Bhonsle an effective hearing. Justice Gajendra Singh said the municipal authority had informed her father about the proposed correction but not Bhonsle, whose record was directly affected. The court found that the failure to hear her violated the principles of natural justice and set aside the order issued on March 31, 2026. It did not decide which of the competing birth dates is correct. The dispute concerns two dates that would place Bhonsle at different ages when she married in March 2026. Her petition with her husband says she was born on January 1, 2008, and cites her original birth certificate and other government documents. The state and her father argued that a maternity register at the Maheshwar Community Health Centre records her birth as December 30, 2009, which would mean she was a minor at the time of the marriage.