Madras HC fines husband Rs 50,000, rejects DNA test demand for son

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has dealt a setback to a husband who claimed he had no physical relations with his wife and asked how, then, a son was born. On that basis he had sought a DNA test of the son. The court refused the demand and also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on him.

Justice Shamim Ahmed dismissed the husband's criminal revision petition. The matter is linked to a pending domestic violence case, in which the magistrate had earlier declined to order a DNA test. The husband had challenged that decision of the magistrate in the High Court.

The court said clearly that a child's identity and right to privacy cannot be sacrificed merely because parents want to prove allegations of extramarital relationships against each other. It also observed that a child cannot be used as a pawn to prove that the mother was unfaithful to the father.

The court said the legal proceeding was started with the aim of humiliating the wife and damaging her standing in society. It also noted that a child born during a valid marriage is regarded as legitimate in the eyes of the law, and stressed the importance of this provision.

The High Court further said the husband had no substantial ground to challenge this presumption of the child's legitimacy. For this reason the petition could not stand, and the husband will have to pay the fine of Rs 50,000.

The husband's argument was that since he had no relations with his wife, a question arises over his being the father of the son. The court did not accept this argument as a basis, and the magistrate's decision stands.