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This is an archive article published on May 9, 2006

Court can order DNA test to prove legitimacy

In disputes over parentage, can a court compel a person to undergo blood or DNA testing?

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In disputes over parentage, can a court compel a person to undergo blood or DNA testing? Although the stated legal position is no, the Kerala High Court has held that the embargo was not total and could be resorted to if it helped undo the tag of illegitimacy on a person.

The ruling has come from a Division Bench of Chief Justice V K Bali and Justice J B Koshy. The court was hearing the prayer of two women, one wanting to establish her status as wife and the other, to prove her legitimacy as a daughter.

The court dismissed appeals filed by the men challenging the Kerala Women’s Commission decision asking them to undergo DNA testing. One wanted to establish that she was wife of Gopalan Nair while the other, a tribal woman, hoped to prove she was born to one Joseph. The men had disowned their claims. The HC held, ‘‘we are convinced that the DNA test, if positive, would redeem the two women of the trauma they have been undergoing and also advance the purpose for which the Women’s Commission Act, 1990 came to be enacted.’’

g.ananthakrishnan@expressindia.com

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