Ashok Kumar v. Raj Gupta & Ors. — DNA testing guidelines — compelling a party to a civil suit to undergo a DNA test

Part of the Forensic Docket on Legal Desire Forensics — how a forensic technique fared under appellate scrutiny.

The facts

In a declaratory suit, the appellant-plaintiff claimed ownership over coparcenary property belonging to the respondents-defendants’ parents.

The defendants sought to have the plaintiff subjected to a DNA test, and a Revision Petition seeking that direction was allowed by the High Court.

On appeal, the Supreme Court held that a party to a declaratory suit cannot be subjected to a DNA test against his will unless there is an eminent need for it.

It noted that the plaintiff had already adduced his evidence in the suit and was not himself interested in producing additional (DNA) evidence to prove his case, and on that basis set aside the direction compelling him to undergo the test.

Why this belongs in the Forensic Docket: An important guideline for anyone weighing whether to seek a DNA test in civil litigation: courts will not compel a party to submit to one against their will without a genuine, demonstrated need, particularly where the party seeking to rely on it is not the one being tested.

Case details

Read the full judgment (PDF), sourced from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open dataset (AWS Open Data Registry, CC-BY-4.0).

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