SC directs Delhi govt to take care of child with disputed paternity

Expressing concern about the future of a child with disputed paternity, the Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Delhi government to determine the well-being of the tween and ensure the availability of basic material goods required to maintain a minimum standard of living.

The top court was hearing a plea filed by a woman challenging an order of the Delhi High Court which held that her daughter was not entitled to maintenance.

In this case, the woman was employed as a domestic help in the residence of the man for a period of three years during which he established sexual relations with her on the pretext of marriage.

The parties eventually got married in March 2016 and a child was born.

Matrimonial relations soured fairly quickly leading to the institution of a complaint under Section 12 of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 on July 14, 2016, seeking interim maintenance to the tune of Rs 25,000 per month, and a protection order for the appellant and her minor child among other reliefs.

In response to the application, the man prayed for a direction to conduct a DNA test to establish the paternity of the child along with denying all allegations of domestic violence as baseless.

The trial court ordered a DNA test which revealed that the man was not the biological father of the woman’s child. The court then rejected the application which was upheld by an appellate court.

Later, an appeal was filed before the Delhi High Court which dealt with Section 112 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 and held that the protection of this section would have been available to the woman only if the DNA test had not been conducted since the intent of the section is to grant the presumption of legitimacy to every child.

Since the DNA report was on record, the high court refused to grant maintenance to the child. Regarding maintenance for the woman, the high court held that the trial court erred in denying interim maintenance. It remanded the matter to the trial court for fresh consideration.

A top court bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and N Kotiswar Singh said there was no error in the high court’s decision denying the grant of maintenance to her daughter.

Expressing concern for the child, the apex court said the high court has correctly remanded the matter of the appellant’s maintenance to be decided afresh by the trial court. However, it acknowledged that the difficulties for the child will persist even if a revised amount is awarded according to the law.

“As such, in the interest of wanting to ensure the security and well-being of the child in question, we direct the Secretary, Women and Child Development, Government of the NCT of Delhi, to depute a person of considerable experience to ascertain details of the residence of the appellant and visit the same to determine the wellbeing of the child including in terms of education, nutrition, health, as also the availability of basic material goods required to maintain a minimum standard of living.

“It would be expected that wherever the said child’s situation is found to be lacking, the Department would step in to take remedial measures,” the bench said.