C . EV ERY C HI LD’ S RIGH T TO A NAT IONALIT Y if any, on the birth registration of that child. This leaves room for arbitrary refusals of birth registrations of certain children. Hence, these gaps in the Indian birth registration system are a huge impediment which prevent India from achieving Sustainable Development Goal (‘SDG’) 16.9 that focuses on ‘legal identity for all’ by 2030.127 The condition of statelessness leaves a person without a recognised juridical personality which is a clear violation of human dignity. This is because a lack of legal personality absolutely denies ‘an individual’s condition of being a subject of rights and renders him vulnerable to non-observance of his rights by the State or other individuals’.128 Hence, an inefficient birth registration system violates Article 21 since it fails to guarantee legal personhood and human dignity. Despite the Parliament and the Executive’s insufficient action on this front, it must be noted that the Indian judiciary has taken some positive steps to prevent and reduce statelessness among children, thereby respecting India’s international law obligations. In the case of Jan Balaz, as mentioned in the earlier section, the Indian judiciary liberally interpreted the nationality of children born to surrogate parents so that they were not left stateless. 127 Sustainable Development Solutions Network, ‘Target 16.9 by 2030 provide legal identity for all including free birth registrations’ <https://indicators.report/targets/16-9/> accessed 21 May 2020. 128  Case of Girls Yean and Bosico v Dominican Republic Inter-American Court of Human Rights Series C no 156 (8 September 2005). chapter i • status 79 SECTION I.C.2