Can't Allow DNA Testing Routinely, Strong Case Required: Kerala High Court

"The court finds that one cannot seek DNA test to be done only in his/her attempt to fish out evidence in support of his/her case," the Kerala high court said.

The Kerala high court has ruled that courts cannot allow DNA testing in all cases, but only in those matters where a strong prima facie case is made out in favour of the person who seeks the test.

"The court finds that one cannot seek DNA test to be done only in his/her attempt to fish out evidence in support of his/her case. Unless and until the applicant makes out a strong prima facie case, such an application is not liable to be allowed," it said while allowing a petition challenging a trial court's decision to allow a DNA test to be conducted in a property dispute.

The trial court order came on a petition filed by a woman before a trial court in 2017, staking claim to land belonging to a man who died in the 1980s on the grounds that the dead man was her father, and that he had been married to her mother before he wedded another woman. She claimed that she was born out of the man's first marriage and hence, she and her mother were entitled to a part of his property.