FLAIR TALK Magazine - October 2015

In this issue

Literally meaning ‘Truth Alone Triumphs’ is the national motto of India post-independence. Analytically it should be the prime principle while administration of justice by any person or a body anywhere in the world. However, a particular provision of Indian Evidence Act, i.e. Section 112 is an anomaly to the abovementioned well-known rule of jurisprudence. In layman’s terms, it provides that a man shall be liable to accept a child as his own, if it is born during the continuance of his marriage with the mother of the child or within 280 days of their separation, unless lack of access is established. Now, in this age of advancement of medical science, DNA testing, establishes to a certain extent of surety whether the person is related to someone or not and is widely used in all other investigations except determining the paternity of a child. Here, the Courts believed that it is more important to protect the child from ‘basterdization’ or the mother from being labelled unchaste. But is it fair to burden a man with the responsibility of another man’s child or to live with a doubt as to faithfulness of his wife throughout his life? Let us explore these questions in our cover story written by Ramesh Kumar Maali, a graduate from Dr RML National Law University.