While setting aside a family court order granting maintenance to a minor girl under Section 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), the Allahabad high court has directed that first a DNA test be done to ascertain her correct parentage, which was a plea raised earlier by her father but was rejected by the family court.
Passing this directive, the court observed that in cases involving peculiar facts and circumstances, both the father and the daughter have every right to know the biological truth. The court noted that if the biological father is not known, it will continue to trouble both of them throughout their lives.
Justice Madan Pal Singh passed this order dated March 17 on a criminal revision petition filed by one Jawahir Lal Jaiswal against a March 2025 judgment passed by the principal judge, family court in Sonbhadra.
The trial court had earlier allowed the application of the girl, directing the revisionist to pay a monthly maintenance allowance of ₹3,000 from the date of the application and ₹6,000 from the date of the judgment until her marriage. Father’s demand for a DNA test was also rejected.
During the court proceedings before the high court, the father contended that his marriage to the girl’s mother was solemnised in June 1994 but she left his house without any reason in February 2000. He alleged that she subsequently lived with another man and that the minor daughter was born from this illicit relationship in 2011. It was his case that since there was no physical relationship between the revisionist and his wife, who is mother of the minor girl, after February 2000, he could not be the biological father of the girl.
It was also submitted that since there is a very serious issue as to who is the biological father of the minor girl, a DNA test of both parties is a very important factor.
Having perused the trial court records, the court noted that while the maintenance application claimed the mother stayed at her matrimonial house for four months in 2010 and delivered the child on January 1, 2011, the medical records presented to the court painted a different picture.
Justice Singh noted that the birth certificate indicated that a child was born to the couple on November 20, 2009. Further, another medical certificate revealed that the mother delivered a second child in July 2017, officially naming her alleged partner as the father.
When questioned by the court, the counsel for the minor girl admitted that the mother had indeed left the father after 2011 and was living with her alleged partner, who was the father of the second child, born in 2017. However, the counsel maintained that the first child was actually the revisionist’s daughter.
The court was, however, not convinced and so it set aside the maintenance order and directed the trial court to conduct a DNA test and decide the matter afresh within three months.
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