Dimple Gupta (Minor) vs Rajiv Gupta

2. The appellant herein, Dimple Gupta, filed an application under section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure through her mother Narain Dassi claiming maintenance at Rs. 500/- per month from the respondent Rajiv Gupta alleging that he was her father as she had been born out of a relationship between him and her mother. It was alleged in the application that she was living with her mother at village Nogali Tehsil Rampur, Himachal Pradesh at the time of the filing of the petition and that she had been conceived out of wedlock when her mother was a student in the Xth Class in the Government High Court School at village Nogali. It was further alleged that when the respondent got to know that Narain Dassi had concived shehad been taken by him to Chandigarh in order to get the foetus aborted but the Doctor advised that as the pregnancy was at an advanced stage it was not possible to undergo the procedure. It was further alleged that the respondent had then abandoned her mother whereafter she was born on 8.7.1991 at village Kalpa.

4. Aggrieved by the judgment of the trial Judge, respondent Rajiv Gupta filed Criminal Revision No. 62 of 2001 in the High Court at Shimla. The learned Single Judge of the High Court reversed the judgment of the tril Judge holding that in the light of several judgments of the High Court in identical matter it had been held that in a case of a child born out of an illicit relationship the mother was in the capacity of an accomplice to the crime and as such it was essential that her statement be corroborated by other evidence to prove the case. The High Court also observed that it was not sufficient for the applicant to show that the respondent was indeed her father but the court had also to give a finding that in all reasonableness no one else could have been the father and examining the evidence in the light of the above principles discarded the statement of PW1 Narain Dassi an unworthy of credence and also rejected the evidence of PW2 Kanchuck Dolma on the ground that as she had disowned her initial statements in Court after she had been re-called for evidence and had supported the respondent's case, whereas PW3 Chandra Devi was a liar as she had admitted that at the relevant time she may have been in Sri Lanka and thus could not have witnessed the presence of Narain Dassi and Rajeev Gupta in the Guest House. The court also observed that in the school admission form Ex.D.A. the column pertaining to the father's name had been left blank whereas in the Birth entry Ex.PW4/A the father's name had been entered as Rajiv Kumar and as such could not be connected with the respondent whose name was Rajiv Gupta. The High Court accordingly upset the judgment of the trial Magistrate, allowed the revision petition and dismissed the application leading to the filing of this appeal.

7. The High Court has placed reliance on Dorje Wangial v. Kaaram Singh (1997) 2 Sim.L.C. 277 to contend that the statement of Narian Dassi being in the nature of accomplicae evidence was liable to be corroborated by other evidence to be accepted. Even assuming this statement to be a correct enunciation of the Law we find that Narain Dassi's statement gets adequate corroboration from the evidence which we have already noted above. We accordingly allow the appeal, set aside the judgment of the High Court and restore that of the trial Magistrate. The appellant shall be paid all the arrears upto date within a period of three months from today and continue to receive the maintenance regularly as per law.