Not obliged to provide child maintenance if not biological father: Supreme Court

A man cannot be compelled to pay maintenance for a child that is not biologically his, the Supreme Court said Wednesday while dismissing a woman’s appeal for maintenance for her daughter. The bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and N Koteshwar Singh said this will hold even if the child is born after the man’s marriage to her mother. But for this rule to apply, it has to be proved that the man has not fathered the child.
The woman had gone to the top court after the Delhi High Court had turned down her appeal.
The couple got married in 2016. But following disputes, the woman sought interim maintenance for herself and the child under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005.
During the proceedings, the husband had requested a DNA test to determine the child’s paternity, which the Magistrate granted. The report revealed that the man was not the biological father of the child and the woman did not contest it.
Subsequently, the trial court refused to grant maintenance for the child. The decision was upheld by the high court.
The court considered Section 112 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 (now Section 116 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam), which presumes that a child born during the subsistence of a marriage is legitimate, unless it is proven that the husband and wife were estranged.
Citing its previous judgments – such as “Aparna Ajinkya Firodia v. Ajinkya Arun Firodia” (2023) and others – the court observed that orders for conducting DNA tests should be issued with extreme caution.
But in the case at hand, the DNA test had already been conducted, and the mother had not even challenged the report. So following a 2014 judgment, the top court held that where scientific evidence (DNA) is unequivocal, it shall override legal presumptions.
The Court also affirmed that, in such a case, the refusal to grant maintenance for the child was justified.
Nevertheless, keeping the best interests of the child in mind, the court directed the Department of Women and Child Development of the Delhi Government to assess the child’s condition – specifically regarding her education, nutrition, and health- and to ensure that assistance is provided wherever necessary.