Delhi HC orders DNA test to settle maintenance row

Here is an interesting news item on adultery and paternity fraud to come up at Delhi High Court. Delhi High Court rightly availed itself of the benefit of modern technology in a maintenance case filed by wife where paternity was in question.

 

Why not?

• When rapists are convicted based on the DNA evidence;
• When a baby mixed up in a maternity ward is rightfully restored to the biological mother based on the DNA evidence;
• When a man cheating a woman into pregnancy and abandoning the mother and the child is forced into accepting his responsibility based on the DNA evidence;
• When hundreds of convicts on death row are routinely freed in the US based on the DNA evidence;
• Heck! When the most powerful man in the world, the President of US, was impeached based on the DNA evidence;

Then why not, in a blatant case of adultery committed in the broad daylight, the evidence of which is growing by the minute in the form of an illegitimate child born out of the adultery; can we not use DNA evidence to establish the truth?

 

Why not?

 

No more can the Courts in India deny themselves of the benefit of modern technology to get to the truth. The Courts have the moral and legal responsibility to establish the truth and anything less is staunchly against the principles of Natural Justice.  Principles of Natural Justice, a term frequently quoted by all the eminent courts of our country, including our apex court – the Supreme Court, demands TRUTH, whether it is in a murder case or in a paternity case.

 

Below is the news clipping.

Delhi HC orders DNA test to settle maintenance row

NEW DELHI: Faced with claims by a man that he didn’t father a child for whom his estranged wife is seeking maintenance, Delhi High Court has ordered a DNA test of the child to determine his paternity. The man alleges the child was born out of an adulterous relationship.
                                                  .
Justice Vipin Sanghi has roped in AIIMS to conduct a paternity test on eight-year-old Anup (name changed) to decide if the father, Ravinder (name changed) is the biological father or not. Ravinder had moved HC after a lower court hearing the maintenance petition had rejected his demand for a DNA test on Anup.

“The parentage of the child can only be determined by a DNA test. The liability to pay maintenance under section 125 CrPC can be avoided by the petitioner with respect to this child only if it is established that he is not the biological son of the petitioner,” the judge observed while quashing the lower court’s decision. HC has asked the mother, Sonam (name changed) to ensure her child is present before the AIIMS medical superintendent on May 22 at 11am for the DNA test.

Ravinder had pressed for a DNA test before HC, claiming that Sonam had illicit relations with her brother-in-law and this child was born out of that affair. Wondering why should he be held liable for maintenance when he wasn’t the biological father, Ravinder also claimed he didn’t have physical relations with his wife ten months before Anup was born and therefore suspected her of committing adultery. 
The marriage took place in September 2000 and in June, a year later, Anup was born. Alleging Sonam of having illicit relations, Ravinder walked out of the marriage, only to be slapped with a case of harassment for dowry in 2007 and a case of maintenance a year later. Sonam has demanded maintenance for Anup and her first child whom she had out of her first marriage.

Ravinder’s plea before the magistrate was dismissed after the lower court held that holding of a DNA test will not have any effect on the merits of the case as maintenance petition doesn’t differentiate between a legitimate child and an illegitimate one. But HC favoured Ravinder when he pointed out that his claim is that Anup isn’t his biological child.

abhinav.garg@timesgroup.com

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Tags: adultery, betrayal, false cases, paternity fraud