PUTRAJAYA: A married couple has won their appeal in the Federal Court to set aside a Court of Appeal ruling to compel a teenager to undergo a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) test to determine her paternity.
A five-judge Bench comprising Justices Zabariah Mohd Yusof, Hasnah Mohammed Hashim, Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal, Nordin Hassan and Abu Bakar Jais allowed the couple’s appeal to set aside the appellate court’s decision.
In the court’s judgment, Justice Zabariah said it was not in the best interest of the teenager for the court to order a DNA test.
“The very act of making C (the teenager) do the DNA test is in itself damaging, disrupting her status quo and putting into question the only reality she has known for the past 15 and a half years that D1 and D2 (the couple) are her parents.
“She may be exposed to odium and humiliation if found to be born out of her mother’s extramarital affair and hence an illegitimate child,” she added.
She said there were no specific written statutory provisions or common law providing power to the courts to order anyone, whether an adult or child, to undergo a DNA test in civil proceedings.
“When dealing with fragile familial structures, the judiciary should not be a forerunner that sets social trends and ignores the pitfalls and legal implications of its decision in the absence of clear legislative provisions.
“It is wise for the court of law to err on the side of caution when dealing in such matters,” she said, as reported by Bernama.
The appeal originated from a suit filed in November 2015 against the couple by a man claiming to be the biological father of the girl, who was born in 2008.The man sought a court order to compel the teenager to undergo a DNA test to determine who her biological father was.
The man claimed that he had an extramarital affair with the girl’s mother during that period, which only ended in 2014.
He also sought a declaration of his status as the girl’s biological father, as well as orders relating to maintenance and access to the 16-year-old girl.
In 2021, the High Court ruled in favour of the man and ordered that a DNA test be conducted on the teenager to establish her paternity, ruling that the court had the power to order such a test in the best interest of the child.
In March last year, the Court of Appeal upheld the High Court’s decision, prompting the couple to bring the case to the Federal Court.
The appellate court also ordered that any information that may lead to the identification of the parties in the case be withheld.Yesterday, lawyers Foo Yet Ngo and Kiran Dhaliwal represented the couple while lawyer Tay Kit Hoo appeared for the man.
