illegitimate relation ship and child hereditary conflicts.

1. LEGITIMACY
Dr.Kaleem Khan

2.  What is meant by legitimacy?
 By legitimacy is meant the legal
status of a person born in lawful
wedlock(marriage)

3.  Under section 112 of the Indian Evidence Act
 A legitimate child has been defined as one born during
the continuance of a valid marriage between his mother
and any man or within 280 days after its dissolution by
1. Divorce,
2. Death of the husband,
3. And the mother remaining unmarried.

4.  An illegitimate or bastard child is one which is
Born out of lawful wedlock,
Not within a competent time after the dissolution of the marriage
by divorce,
Death of the husband,

5.  Born within lawful wedlock when procreation by the
husband was not possible because
 He was under the age of puberty
 He was physically incapable of procreation due to illness, malformations,
impotency, or sterility
 He did not have sexual access to his wife during the time that the child
could have been begotten, or
 There is incompatibility between the blood group between the child and
alleged father.

6. An illegitimate child becomes legitimate by the
subsequent marriage of parents if the child is born
out of lawful wedlock.

7.  Legitimacy and disputed paternity arises under the
following circumstances,
Nullity of marriage
Divorce
Inheritance
Affiliation (adoption) cases, and
Suppositious children.

8.  It is contract between man and woman, legally
permitted for physical union by sexual intercourse.
 :-

9. Marriage is considered nullified as per the law where
consummation of marriage is not established.
Ground For nullity of Marriage Can Be
 Either party is under the age of marriage contract.
 Either party was already validly married.
 Both parties are of the same sex

10.  Either party was suffering from incurable impotency, insanity, HIV infection,
leprosy, or venereal disease in a communicable form prior to marriage
 Either party was so intoxicated at the time of marriage as not to understand the
nature of the marriage contract
 There is willful refusal to consummate marriage, and
 The respondent wife at the time of marriage was pregnant by any person other
than the husband

11. This means dissolution of a previously valid marriage
 The grounds for divorce include
Desertion
Cruelty
Criminal sex practices, e.g., adultery, rape, sodomy, or bestiality, and
Incurable insanity, HIV infection, leprosy, or venereal disease in a
communicable form.

12. “If the intrauterine age of the child is proved to be
greater than the period of access between the parents, the
dissolution of marriage is allowed by the court on the ground
of adultery.”

13.  Only a legitimate child can inherit property of its parents.
 Hence, in a case of inheritance, the question of legitimacy
of a child may arise.
 Medical evidence may be required concerning the following
facts

14. Age in regard to pregnancy
Duration of pregnancy
Unusual forms of pregnancy, such as, superfecundation and
superfoetation, and
Paternity.

15.  In India, at present, eighteen years is the earliest age at
which a female can contract a valid marriage and a
legitimate conception can take place.

16. While the normal average duration of pregnancy is accepted as
280 days
ten times the normal intermenstrual period of 28 days,
it must be considered possible that the duration of pregnancy
could be shorter or longer where the individual menstrual cycle
is shorter or longer

17.  Where the duration of gestation is shorter ?
Question of viability of the child arises.
A child is viable after 210 days or seven months of intrauterine
life, or rarely 180 days or six months but in most of these cases
the foetus is immature.
The stage of maturity is generally reflected by the weight of
the child at birth.

18.  Where the duration of gestation is longer than normal ?
Child must be larger and heavier than normal,
Ossification centers more fully developed, or else it is unusual
and suspicious

19.  SUPERFECUNDATION AND SUPERFOETATION
 superfecundation
 is meant the fertilisation of two separate ova which
have been discharged from the ovary at the same period
of ovulation. by two separate acts of coitus,.
 70% are binovular twins resulting from separate
fertilization two ova formed in same menstrual cycle

21. Development of twins in utero is parallel but not equal
Depends upon relative blood supply from separately formed
placenta.
Both ova do not always developed to maturity.
One may be
Aborted
Die and retained(fetus compressusus fetus papyraceus)
Spermatozoa can be from different men.

22. Is meant the fertilization of two separate ova discharged from
the ovary at different period of ovulation.
Since menstruation may take place for two or three months
.After impregnation has occurred, superfoetation is possible
during this period,

23.  It must be regarded as a very unlikely occurrence.
 It may occur in cases of double uterus or uterus
didelphis.
 Two infants in different stages of development may be
born.

24.  The word paternity literally means fatherhood, the term
is used here in a broader sense to mean parenthood.
 The supposed parent may or may not be the real father.
 In cases of disputed paternity, blood group tests are
resorted to,
 DNA testing is not yet common.

25.  In India, these tests are carried out by the Haffkine
Institute in Bombay, Central Forensic Science
Laboratory at Delhi, the Serologist of India at Calcutta,
and several other Forensic Science Laboratories all
over the Count

26.  These are popularly known as suits for adoption.
 Under section 125 CrPC, an individual must adopt his
illegitimate child or support him up to a certain age.
 In the latter case, a magistrate of the first class may make a
maximum allowance of' rupees 500 hundred per month for
the maintenance of such a child,
 Taking into consideration only the necessities of life, such
as food, clothing and lodging, and not luxury.

27.  A suppositious child means a fictitious child.
 A woman may pretend pregnancy as well as delivery and
later produce a child as if it is her own.
 She may substitute a living male child for a dead child or
for a living female child born of her.
 The purpose is to
 extort money by blackmail or
 divert succession to property,

28.  The medical officer must be able to say from the
examination of the woman if she was
 Pregnant and delivered a child, and
 From the paternity tests if the child is likely to be hers.
 Such evidence is useful only in those cases where the
age of the suppositious child does not correspond to the
date of the pretended pregnancy and subsequent
delivery

29. This is a contract which enables a married man to live with other
woman without obtaining a divorce.
 Such a contract not only enables the men to neglect their wives
but also cheat the women with whom they have set up another
home

30. These contracts are encountered mainly In Gujrat India.
The Gujarat high court has held that the maitri contracts are
not enforceable in law.
If the man decides to leave the woman, she cannot claim
maintenance nor can she ask for a share in the property the
man possesses
 Only if she has any children by him can she claim
maintenance under section 125 CrPC.

31.  Thanks