The Karnataka Excessive Courtroom on Monday held {that a} DNA check to determine paternity must be performed in accordance with the regulation and never “as a frolicsome act”. This statement got here in a case the place a person appealed towards a civil court docket resolution permitting a DNA check on him and his dad and mom regardless of his and his mom’s objection.
In his order, a single-judge bench of Justice M Nagaprasanna noticed that in accordance with a number of excessive court docket and Supreme Courtroom judgments, there’s a presumption of the legitimacy of a kid born in a lawful marriage, per the doctrine of “pater est quem nuptiae demonstrant”. The Latin phrase signifies that “the daddy is he whom marriage signifies”.
Within the authentic case, a civil choose in Channapatna district allowed a DNA check after the petitioner’s brothers sought it within the context of a partition go well with.
The petitioner’s counsel argued that the dad and mom had been married with a number of kids and that such an utility for a DNA check couldn’t be filed, as it might violate his elementary rights. As per the Proof Act, the brothers must have proved non-access between the dad and mom, the counsel additional argued, including that no plea had been made to show this.
The opposing counsel representing the brothers mentioned that their father had undergone a vasectomy seven years earlier than the petitioner’s delivery in 1986 and that he might due to this fact not be their father’s son.
The bench added that demonstrable non-access between the dad and mom needed to be pleaded and proved. Non-access means the absence of alternative for sexual activity.
Towards the sooner order granting a DNA check, the bench acknowledged, “There was no imminent want for conducting a DNA check; the order ignores the purport of Part 112 of the Indian Proof Act, and presumption of paternity is given a go-bye. No materials is positioned earlier than the Courtroom depicting non-access on the time of delivery. Within the absence of any pleading of the sort, the involved Courtroom has handled the DNA check as a frolicsome act and ordered as a matter in fact. Proper to privateness and dignity is overpassed.”
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The excessive court docket thus quashed the sooner order permitting a DNA check.