New Delhi: The Supreme Court has agreed to examine whether a man would be liable to provide maintenance to a child born during the subsistence of marriage against the backdrop of the DNA report, which said the man was not the biological father.
A bench comprising Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Sanjay Karol issued notice on a special leave petition filed by a woman. The apex court has sought the man's response within four weeks. The apex court, in its order delivered on December 4, said: “The partial challenge is to paragraph 26 of the impugned judgment dated October 17, 2023, of the High Court where the judge held that given the DNA report, the child is dis-entitled to claim maintenance although the child was born during the subsistence of the marriage between the petitioner (mother) and the respondent (man)”.
The woman had moved the apex court challenging the Delhi High Court order by which her child was denied maintenance. The high court had said that in the face of a DNA report existing on record, the man cannot be held liable for making payment of maintenance to the child. The high court had said that the law is also settled that the biological father is liable to maintain his child.
The apex court noted that the petitioner’s counsel submitted that the man and woman had lived together before the marriage and therefore the fact that the child was born within a few months after the marriage, can have no bearing in the matter.
“In support of such contention learned counsel would rely on the judgment in Aparna Ajinkiya Firodia vs. Ajinkya Arun Firodia reported in 2023, to argue that if a man and woman before marriage lived together during the time of conception but the DNA test revealed that child was not born to the husband unless there is proof of no access by the man to the lady, the DNA test would not be conclusive, to deny maintenance for the child”, noted the bench.
The man claimed he was a minor at the time of marriage and the question of the validity of the marriage is pending separately. The woman had claimed she was forced by the man to establish physical relations with two of his friends, as a condition of marriage.
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