SC orders DNA test to confirm paternity

Kathmandu,Feb 4- The Supreme Court has directed conducting deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) test to decide the paternity of twins born illegitimately to a woman from Lamjung district.

With the order passed on Wednesday, the apex court has set a trend to decide all paternity cases by DNA testing. Gaumaya Sarki had given birth to twins in 1996 though her husband had been working in India for three years and she had not met him all this while. She filed a paternity suit in Lamjung district court claiming that her cousin, Rajendra Sarki, who was just 13 years old then, was the father of the twins.

However, another person, Krishna Bahadur Gaire, claimed he was the real father of the twins as Gaumaya had intimate relations with him as well. He said he was ready to accept the twins and the mother. In 1998, the district court decided in favour of Gaire disregarding the mother’s claim as Rajendra was just 13 years of age.

Gaumaya moved Pokhara Appellate Court against the decision. But the appellate court upheld the district court verdict in 1999. Rajendra, who turned 18 in 2001, then moved the apex court, claiming to be the father of the twins.

The case had been pending since then and came up for hearing on Wednesday when a division bench of Justices Sharada Shrestha and Top Bahadur Magar issued the order that a DNA test be conducted to decide the paternity of the twins.

“This is the first time that the Supreme Court has ordered DNA test to find out paternity of the offsprings,” Rajendra’s advocate Jyoti Baniya said. “Now people have the right to ask for a court order for DNA testing,” he added. It may be mentioned that the National Forensic Science Laboratory in Lalitpur started conducting DNA tests in January. Earlier, the mother’s statement was considered while identifying the father of illegitimate children because “according to Hindu philosophy a mother cannot lie about childbirth”. However, in this case the district and appellate courts disregarded mother’s claim as she was claiming that a 13-year-old was the father of her kids.