the court shall make that declaration unless to do so would manifestly be contrary to public policy
.(2)Any declaration made under this Part shall be binding on Her Majesty and all other persons.(3)A court, on the dismissal of an application for a declaration under this Part, shall not have power to make any declaration for which an application has not been made.(4)No declaration which may be applied for under this Part may be made otherwise than under this Part by any court”. (Underlining added for emphasis).27.The statutory scheme clearly envisages a route by which those in the position of the applicants can apply for a declaration as to parentage which in turn can lead to an amendment of their birth certificate (see section 55A(1) and (7)).28.When I first reviewed these applications, my concern was how the route offered by section 55A FLA 1986 could fit with the provisions of section 46(2) and section 67 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 (‘ACA 2002’) (and its predecessor legislation). Section 46(2) reads as follows: “(2) The making of an adoption order operates to extinguish— (a) the parental responsibility which any person other than the adopters or adopter has for the adopted child immediately before the making of the order”.Separately (and located in the ‘Status’ chapter of the ACA 2002) Section 67 (‘Status conferred by adoption’) provides that:(1)“An adopted person is to be treated in law
- Approved Judgment
- The Honourable Mr Justice Cobb:
- Procedural issues
- Ms L: the facts
- Ms M: the facts
- The legal issues discussed
- any person
- for a declaration as to whether or not a person named in the application is or was the parent of another person so named
- that the applicant has a sufficient personal interest in the determination of the application
- Where a declaration is made by a court on an application under subsection (1) above, the prescribed officer of the court shall notify the Registrar General, in such a manner and within such period as may be prescribed, of the making of that declaration
- the court shall make that declaration unless to do so would manifestly be contrary to public policy
- as if born as the child of the adopters or adopter
- as not being the child of any person other than the adopters or adopter
- to extinguish any parental responsibility of the natural parents
- Once an adoption order has been made the adopted child ceases to be the child of his previous parent and becomes the child for all purposes of the adopters as though he were their legitimate child
- fact
- legal
- The legal status of an individual in society should be spelled out accurately and in clear terms and recorded in properly maintained records
- Conclusion