Paternity — Consent for Adult DNA Testing · 30 July 2026
Gujarat High Court: Family Court Cannot Order an Adult Daughter's DNA Paternity Test Without Her Own Consent
High Court of Gujarat · 2026 LiveLaw (Guj) 208
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In 1994, a woman had filed a maintenance suit under the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, claiming to be the petitioner's wife and seeking maintenance for herself and her minor daughter. Years later, she applied for the man to undergo a DNA blood test to establish that he was the child's biological father — by then, the daughter herself had become an adult. The Family Court directed the man to give a blood sample at a forensic laboratory for DNA testing, and further ordered that an adverse inference would be drawn against him if he failed to appear. He challenged this direction before the High Court.
The Gujarat High Court held that a Family Court cannot direct a DNA test to establish an adult daughter's paternity without her own independent consent, since compelling her to do so infringes her right to privacy and bodily autonomy under Article 21 and can carry significant personal and social consequences for her. The Court also noted that, by the time of the petition, the daughter had married and no longer had a claim to maintenance in her own right — a further reason the paternity question no longer needed to be forced through genetic testing.
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