BENGALURU: Reiterati ng that courts must not allow a DNA test as a matter of course when there is an apparent conflict between the right to privacy of a person not to submit himself or herself forcibly to medical examination, the Karnataka High Court said if a DNA test is eminently needed, only then is it to be allowed, strictly within the parameters of Section 112 of the Indian Evidence Act.
In a rare case, Justice M Nagaprasanna passed the order while allowing a petition filed by a man from Shivamogga district, questioning the order dated April 5, 2025, passed by a trial court in Channarayapatna.
The trial court had passed the order in a suit filed in 2016 to conduct a DNA test of the petitioner and his father to determine the blood relation and paternity, in a suit involving a property dispute, despite vehement objection by the father and his wife, who are the defendants.
Counsel for the petitioner, who is the third defendant before the trial court, alleged that a DNA test was ordered for the asking by the plaintiffs, on the specious plea that a vasectomy operation had happened upon the husband eight years before the birth of the child.
“The Apex Court observes that in a matter where paternity of a child is in issue, the use of a DNA test is an extremely delicate and sensitive aspect , ” the high court observed. Section 112 of the Indian Evidence Act (116 of Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam) says: “Birth during marriage is conclusive proof of legitimacy.
The fact that any person was born during the continuance of a valid marriage between his mother and any man, or within 280 days after its dissolution, the mother remaining unmarried, shall be conclusive proof that he is the legitimate son of that man, unless it can be shown that parties to the marriage had no access to each other at any time when he could have been begotten.”
The high court said compelling such tests without imminent need, imperils not only the sanctity of marriage, but legitimacy of the child and also violates the fundamental right to privacy and dignity.