New Delhi, Sept. 16 -- A child's wish to bear the name of the man who lives with and cares for her became a decisive factor in an unusual intervention by the Supreme Court. The court rewrote the terms of their earlier settlement, considering it in the best interests of their child with special needs, including permitting her to take the name of her stepfather, follow the religion of her present household, allowing her mother to alter her school and identity records and give the mother her exclusive custody.

A bench of justices JB Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran, after interacting extensively with the child and both parents, invoked Article 142 of the Constitution to set aside the terms of a 2018 memorandum of settlement while retaining th...