DNA report needed to prove biological parentage, High Court rules

 

The High Court held that there was nothing sinister or perverse in the attorney-general requiring the production of a DNA report in applications to legitimise a child.

PETALING JAYA: The High Court in Kuala Lumpur has ruled that a seven-year-old girl born out of wedlock must prove through DNA evidence that she is the legitimate child of a couple.

Rejecting a contention made on behalf of the child – known by the initials SKY – that there was no provision in the law that empowered the attorney-general (AG), named as respondent, to insist on production of such a DNA report, Justice Evrol Mariette Peters said: “I am unable to accept this line of argument, in view of a perusal of section 5 of the Legitimacy Act which allows the respondent to request for the production of a DNA report.”

Peters said it fell on the petitioner, who was suing through her mother, to comply with the requirements of the law since she had filed the petition.

“Since it was the petitioner who filed this application, she should comply with the necessary requirements, and the request (by the AG) for a DNA report to establish her own claim is within reason.”

Addressing the petitioner’s argument that the court ought to allow her application as a matter of public policy as she is “currently cloaked by the ‘social stigma’ of being an illegitimate child” and that the insistence for a DNA report will further prejudice her, Peters said: “I am unable to accept such an argument, since the law is crystal clear on the procedural requirement for the process of legitimising a person and as such, it is untenable to now claim that the request by the respondent for a DNA report is contrary to public policy.”

Peters, who released her written judgment earlier this week, said “there was nothing sinister or perverse” in the respondent’s request that the petitioner produce a DNA report, as this was “common practice” in applications to legitimise a child.

“Hence, in the interest of determining the truth of the biological parentage of the petitioner, the balance of justice tips in favour of the production of a DNA report,” she said.

In the interest of privacy and having regard to the sensitivity of the issues in the proceedings, the persons claiming to be SKY’s mother, a foreigner, and father, a Malaysian, were identified as ICU and SIN, respectively.

SKY was born on March 27, 2015. The couple subsequently registered their marriage on April 16, 2015.

Having been born out of wedlock, SKY, through her mother, filed an application seeking a court declaration that she is the legitimate child of ICU and SIN.

During case management in June last year, the deputy registrar of the court, at the request of the AG, directed the petitioner to adduce a DNA report in evidence.

Dissatisfied with the requirement placed on her, SKY appealed to the High Court judge seeking to set it aside.

Lawyer Ngeow Chow Ying represented the petitioner while senior federal counsel Rohaiza Hamzah appeared for the respondent. - FMT