Why Supreme Court Upheld DNA Test in Paternity Case, Privacy Challenge
Why Supreme Court Upheld DNA Test in Paternity Case, Privacy Challenge
Publish Date: 2026-06-01 11:49:00
Source Domain: indianexpress.com
5 min readNew DelhiJun 1, 2026 09:19 PM IST
The Supreme Court last month dismissed a challenge to orders that directed a man to undergo a DNA test in a civil suit filed by a person claiming to be his biological son and, in doing so, reiterated an understanding of when the courts can and cannot direct such tests.
The bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and N Kotiswar Singh held that “as far as the right of privacy is concerned, we are balancing, in this case CP’s privacy with [alleged son’s] desire for closure on a question that has loomed large on his life throughout”.
The claim arose from a civil suit filed by the respondent who attained majority, which sought a declaration of paternity and a share in the property of the father, who had denied the claim of his parentage since 1999.
The bench noted that three questions determine whether a DNA test can be directed: if paternity is “directly in issue”, if there is “any other evidence-on-record” capable of substituting for it, and if ordering the test is “in the best interest of the parties and/or justice”.
The court held that the alleged father, CP, had denied paternity consistently for over two decades, and there was no other evidence on record to answer the question. Weighing his right to privacy against the alleged person’s interest in establishing parentage and pursuing inheritance rights, the court thus upheld the DNA testing of CP to determine paternity. In doing so, it said, “If no positive answer is ever found out to the question, it is quite possible that [he] would forever be denied the rights he may otherwise be entitled to by virtue of being CP’s son.”
The legal framework
In paternity disputes, Section 112 of The Indian Evidence Act is invoked, which states that any child that is born during a valid marriage or within 280 days since the dissolution of the marriage is the legitimate child of the husband “unless it can be shown that the parties to the…
