KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has directed the National Database and Registration Authority(Nadra), social welfare department and union councils concerned to devise a uniform and child-sensitive mechanism for registration of abandoned and orphaned children residing in orphanage homes across the province.

The SHC also ordered the authorities to facilitate the issuance of birth certificates and CNICs/child registration certificates to such children within a reasonable time in order to ensure that they were not deprived of their fundamental rights to legal identity, education, healthcare and social protection.

A two-judge constitutional bench of the SHC headed by Justice Adnan-ul-Karim Memon further asked the authorities concerned to ensure that the registration was made without insisting upon parental particulars, but upon verification by head of the orphanage institution in accordance with law and policy.

The bench issued these directives while allowing two petitions filed by an orphanage/shelter home and the legal aid society last year challenging the actions of Nadra to demand parental information from these children and consequent denial of registration and issuance of national identity documents.

The counsel for petitioners argued that questions of public importance were raised in these petitions about continued failure of Nadra along with the provincial authorities concerned to register orphaned and abandoned children of unknown parentage in Sindh and despite a statutory framework under the Nadra Ordinance, 2000 and the Orphanage Registration Policy, 2016, Nadra was insisting on parental particulars resulting in the exclusion of such children from the national database.

The lawyer for Nadra argued that orphan children were registered under two categories ie with known parentage and with unknown parentage and those residing in registered orphanage institutions may apply for child registration certificate upon submission of requisite undertaking along with biometric verification by the orphanage administrator subject to attestation and validation by the zone concerned.

A provincial law officer submitted that the social welfare department Sindh, being regulatory authority responsible for registration and monitoring of such institutions, has compiled a comprehensive list of orphan homes and there were 39 orphanages in the entire province.

The AAG further submitted that the issuance of birth certificates and CNICs came within the domain of UCs and Nadra respectively, but social welfare department remained willing to facilitate coordination to ensure that children residing in registered institutions were not deprived of legal identity.

The bench in its order said that the controversy in these petitions pertained to denial of legal identity to orphaned and abandoned children with unknown parentage on account of procedural impediments in the issuance of birth certificates and CNICs.

It noted that the right to legal identity was intrinsically linked with the right to life and dignity guaranteed under Articles 9 and 14 of the Constitution and the state, under the doctrine of parens patriae, was under constitutional obligation to protect vulnerable and marginalised segments of society and to ensure that their fundamental rights were not rendered illusory due to administrative or procedural constraints.

Similarly, access to identity and recognition before law is a foundational requirement for the enjoyment of other fundamental rights, including access to education, healthcare, and social protection, it added.

The bench also said that any policy or administrative practice which resulted in the systematic exclusion of a class of citizens from the national database was liable to be struck down as being violative of Articles 4, 25, and 25-A of the Constitution.

Published in Dawn, March 2nd, 2026