HC junks man's plea for DNA test of children to seek divorce

The Kerala High Court has junked a 77-year-old man's plea for DNA test of his three children to seek divorce from his wife on grounds of alleged adultery committed by her decades ago.

DNA test cannot be used as a shortcut to establish infidelity that might have occurred decades ago, a division bench of justices V Chitambaresh and K P Jothindranath held recently while dismissing the man's queer's plea.

The husband had alleged that his wife had told him, rather declared in the presence of the adulterer, that the three children born in their wedlock were not his but those of her paramour.

After hearing the declaration from the wife, he moved the family court seeking a divorce and had filed an application seeking to conduct the DNA test.

The lower court, however, had dismissed his plea following which he had approached the high court.

In its order, the bench said this is not a case where the DNA test is the only safe route to reach the truth.

"When the children are major, surely they cannot be compelled to give blood samples in a civil proceeding where they were not parties.

"The case projected by the petitioner seems to be that if the DNA test proves the petitioner is not the biological father of the said three children, the corollary is that the wife committed infidelity and there is adultery," the court noted.

It observed that if the paternity of the children was the issue in the proceeding, DNA test may be the only safe method but it was not so in this case.

"In the case of three major children, after the passage of a long time, the DNA test cannot be used as a short cut to establish infidelity that might have occurred decades ago," the court said.

Even an order to undergo DNA test itself may have its own effect on the reputation of the children in the society and it is also to be considered that they are major children born during the existence of a valid marriage, who are not party to the original proceeding, it added.

"They are also not the party in this proceeding," the court said.

The court said the facts in the case reminds the words of a French Philosopher, Michel de Montaigne - "a good marriage would be between a blind wife and a deaf husband.