Supreme Court rules teenager cannot be forced to take DNA test to determine paternity

PUTRAJAYA:A married couple has won their appeal in Federal Court to overturn an Appeal Court decision requiring a teenage girl to undergo a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) test to determine paternity.

A five-man bench comprising Justices Datuk Zabariah Mohd Yusof, Datuk Sri Hasnah Mohammed Hashim, Datuk Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal, Datuk Nordin Hassan and Datuk Abu Bakar Jais allowed the couple's appeal to set aside the Court of Appeal's decision.

In the court judgment, Judge Zabariah said it was not in the teenager's best interests for the court to order a DNA test.

“The mere act of having C (the teenager) take the DNA test is in itself damaging, disrupting her status quo and calling into question the only reality she has known for 15 and a half years, namely that D1 and D2 (the couple) are her parents.

“She risks being exposed to hatred and humiliation if it is discovered that she was born from her mother's extramarital affair and therefore an illegitimate child,” she said.

Justice Zabariah said there is no specific written statutory provision or common law that gives the courts the power to order any person, whether an adult or a child, to submit to a DNA test in civil proceedings.

“When it comes to fragile family structures, the judiciary must not be a precursor 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 to exercise caution when dealing with such issues,” she said.

The complaint was filed in November 2015 against the couple by a man claiming to be the biological father of the girl born in 2008, seeking a court order to compel the teenager to undergo a DNA test to determine her paternity.

The man claimed that he and the girl's mother had an extramarital affair during this period, which only ended in 2014.

He also sought a declaration of his status as the girl's biological father and orders relating to maintenance and access to the 16-year-old girl.

In 2021, the High Court ruled in the man's favour and ordered a DNA test to be carried out on the teenager to establish paternity, ruling that the court had the power to order such a test in the best interests of the child.

In March last year, the Court of Appeal upheld the High Court's decision, prompting the couple to take the case to the Federal Court.

The appeals court also ordered that the identities, details and information that could lead to the identification of the parties in the case not be published.

In today's court proceedings, lawyers Foo Yet Ngo and Kiran Dhaliwal represented the couple and lawyer Teh Kit Hoo represented the man.