1. Merely by looking after them you do not become their legal guardian.

2. Their widowed mother is alive and you are not yet their adoptive father to claim yourself as their legal guardian.

3. If you take them as your daughters in adoption, you shall automatically become their legal guardian and will be able to enter your name in their passports to that affect.

1. The Passport office has already refused to add your name in their passport as their legal guardian.

2. You shall be treated as their legal guardian if you take them in adoption following the legal steps as suggested in my earlier post.

1) on demise of husband mother is legal guardian of the children

2) there is no concept of adoption among Muslims

3) if as step father you want to act a legal guardian of children you need court orders appointing you as legal guardian of the children

Hi

1) It is a noble gesture from your side that you are taking care of the children in all aspects.

2) Under your personal laws , Guardianship in marriage (jabar) the following persons can act as guardians in the marriage of a minor, in the order of enumeration:-

(i) Father

(ii)Father’s father

(iii) Full brother and other male relations on the father’s side

(iv)Mother

(v) Maternal relations within prohibited degrees

(vi) Qazi or the court

3) Under Muslim personal laws applicable to both Sunni's and Shia's in the absence of the father, the grand father is a testamentary guardian unless and until the guardianship is granted to you by the Court.

4) In order to have your name as legal guardian in the passport of the children, you should make an application to the courts under Guardians and Wards Act, 1890, to the District Court.

5) In general and more so in your case, the District Court may appoint you as a guardian of a minor child’s person on the grounds of necessary for the welfare of the minor, taking into consideration the age, sex, wishes of the child as well as the wishes of the parents and the personal law of the minor.

Hope this information is useful.

1. You are not their legal guardian because neither they are your biological children nor you have adopted them.

2. The only remedy for you is to move the High Court through a writ petition against the Regional Passport Authority to add your name in place of father's name in the passport.

My question is why I am not their legal guardian when I am looking after them in all respect, and her mother is not earning anything and they are fully dependent on me. for your kind information they does not own any property in their names.

What should I do legally to have my name in their Passports as Legal Guardian.

You canot appoint yourself as legal guardian to the children who do not belong to you.

You have married their mother but the children were not born to you and you are not the biological father to the children.

You could have adopted your step children, then you get the status of their legal guardian automatically;

Even now you can legally adopt the children from their biological mother and get it registered to make yourself as legal guardian to the minor children.

Also you may have to see whether law allows you to adopt two minor daughters at a time.

Legal advise at your earliest as we have already submitted the application form and waiting for the Passport now.

You can legally adopt the children by a registered adoption deed and then produce the copy of the adoption deed to prove that you are the adoptive father and the legal guardian of the children hence you would like to get your name endorsed in the passport as their legal guardian