9911796707
TMI Blog2005 (4) TMI 630X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ication under Section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (in short the 'CPC') filed by the appellant seeking DNA test of the respondent no.1 Smt. Teeku Dutta and Sh. Ram Saran Dass Sharma, (who is not a party in this appeal). Respondent No.1 has filed case No.86 of 1944 for grant of succession certificate under Section 372 of the Act. Background facts in a nutshell are as follows: The respondent No. 1 filed a petition for grant of Succession Certificate in respect of the properties of one Iqbal Nath Sharma (hereinafter referred to as the 'deceased') claiming that she was his daughter and the only surviving Class I legal heir under the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 (in short the 'Succession Act'). It was indi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... as sufficient documentary evidence has already been brought on record. The trial court allowed the application primarily on the ground that Mrs. Teeku Dutta had initially concealed the fact that the deceased had five brothers and had deliberately left out Banarsi Dass Sharma from the array of respondents, and this casts doubt on the bonafides of the applicant's claim of being the daughter of the deceased. The trial court considered the petition for grant of succession certificate and the no objections filed by other respondents namely Ram Saran Dass and Amar Nath Sharma to be somewhat collusive. Another reason which appears to have weighted heavily with learned trial judge was that the documentary evidence brought on record was not c ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... to have roving inquiry, the prayer for blood test cannot be entertained. (3) There must be a strong prima facie case in that the husband must establish non-access in order to dispel the presumption arising under Section 112 of the Evidence Act. (4) The court must carefully examine as to what would be the consequence of ordering the blood test; whether it will have the effect of branding a child as a bastard and the mother as an unchaste woman. (5) No one can be compelled to give sample of blood for analysis. It was noted that Section 112 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 (in short the 'Evidence Act') requires the party disputing the patronage to prove non-access in order to dispel the presumption of the fact under Sectio ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... at the parties to the marriage had no access to each other at any time when he could have been begotten. This rule of law based on the dictates of justice has always made the courts incline towards upholding the legitimacy of a child unless the facts are so compulsive and clinching as to necessarily warrant a finding that the child could not at all have been begotten to the father and as such a legitimation of the child would result in rank injustice to the father. Courts have always desisted from lightly or hastily rendering a verdict and that too, on the basis of slender materials, which will have the effect of branding a child as a bastard and its mother an unchaste woman. The view has been reiterated by this Court in many later case ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n of debts, to regulate the administration of succession and to protect persons who deal with the alleged representatives of the deceased persons. Such a certificate does not give any general power of administration on the estate of the deceased. The grant of a certificate does not establish title of the grantee as the heir of the deceased. A Succession Certificate is intended as noted above to protect the debtors, which means that where a debtor of a deceased person either voluntarily pays his debt to a person holding a Certificate under the Act, or is compelled by the decree of a Court to pay it to the person, he is lawfully discharged. The grant of a certificate does not establish a title of the grantee as the heir of the deceased, but o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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