Just truths: On DNA evidence and rights

📌 Summary:

• Context: Courts must balance the use of DNA tests in paternity disputes against an individual's right to privacy and bodily autonomy; both the Indian Evidence Act 1872 and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam 2023 place the burden of proof on the party denying paternity to protect children from the stigma of illegitimacy
• Core argument: DNA testing must be a last resort — ordered only when necessary and proportionate, respecting a person's rights even though science may be "infallible"
• Evolution of jurisprudence (causal chain via case law): (1) Goutam Kundu (1993) and Shri Banarsi Dass (2005): DNA tests cannot be ordered routinely; a strong prima facie case is needed; legitimacy is protected over "forensic curiosity" (2) Nandlal Wasudeo Badwaik (2014) and Dipanwita Roy (2014): reliable scientific proof may prevail over legal fiction in the interest of justice; refusing a test can invite adverse inference (3) K.S. Puttaswamy (2017): right to privacy — including of genetic data — is a fundamental right under Article 21, introducing a threefold test of legality, legitimate aim and proportionality (4) Aparna Ajinkya Firodia (2023): DNA tests only where necessary and proportionate, not if the dispute can be resolved by other evidence (5) Ivan Rathinam (2025) and CP vs AP (2026): neither privacy nor the right to know is absolute; a test may be ordered if paternity is directly in issue, no other evidence can resolve it, and it serves justice
• Post-Puttaswamy principle: the Constitution protects bodily autonomy and restricts compelled genetic disclosure, but courts may still order a DNA test under the necessity-and-proportionality framework

🎯 UPSC Relevance: GS2 Polity — Fundamental Rights (Article 21, right to privacy), and the interface of science, law and rights in judicial decision-making.

📝 Prelims Facts:

• Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam 2023 replaced the Indian Evidence Act 1872
• K.S. Puttaswamy (2017) recognised the right to privacy as a fundamental right under Article 21
• The proportionality test has three prongs: legality, legitimate aim, proportionality

🔑 Key Term: Proportionality test — a judicial standard requiring that any restriction on a fundamental right be lawful, pursue a legitimate aim, and be the least-restrictive means proportionate to that aim.