Maternity leave no condition to prove parentage, rules HC
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has made it clear that parentage cannot be denied merely because the mother did not avail of maternity leave at the time of the child’s birth. The ruling came as the court rejected the Union of India’s argument along these lines in a family pension case.
The Division Bench of Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma and Justice Meenakshi I Mehta also dismissed the Centre’s plea challenging the grant of family pension to the woman-applicant whose mother, an Income Tax Department employee, had not entered her name in the service records. A doubt was cast about the employee being the applicant’s biological mother despite the fact that her birth certificate was produced and affidavits of other two siblings filed.
“As per law, even if a child is born from an illicit relationship, and the father and mother are having existing marriage in terms of the provisions of the Hindu Succession Act, the child would be treated as their legitimate child,” the Bench of Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma and Justice Meenakshi I Mehta asserted.
The court added that a birth certificate and educational certificates reflecting parentage were sufficient proof. “For a child born of a parent who has expired, apart from submitting birth certificate and educational certificates reflecting the parentage, we do not find there is any other document which one can produce to prove the parentage,” the Bench asserted.
The court also noted that the applicant had already been recognized as the child of her now-deceased father, who was employed with the Military Engineering Services, as she had been granted his family pension. “Once it has come on record that the father’s family pension has already been released to the applicant recognising her to be his child, and it is the admitted position that the deceased lady was wife of the deceased father of the applicant, there is no occasion to doubt the birth of the applicant from the deceased mother,” the Bench added.
Dismissing the Union of India's challenge to the Central Administrative Tribunal’s order directing the release of family pension with arrears, the court held that the petitioner had failed to produce any evidence to dispute the applicant’s claim. “Therefore, the impugned order dated April 23 last year, passed by the CAT, does not warrant any interference.”
