JUDGMENT :

Kauser Edappagath, J.

Can a direction to undergo Deoxyribonucleic Acid Test (commonly known as DNA Test) be given in a proceedings for divorce to establish the husband’s assertion of infidelity and adultery on the part of the wife without the child in the party array? -is the core question falls for consideration in these Original Petitions.

2. The husband is the petitioner in both the original petitions. The first respondent is the wife. The second respondent is the brother-in-law (sister’s husband) of the first respondent.

3. The petitioner preferred OP No.1921/2013 for dissolution of marriage on the ground of cruelty, desertion and adultery and OP No.868/2016 for recovery of money and gold ornaments while the first respondent preferred OP No.432/2018 for recovery of money at the Family Court, Thiruvananthapuram (for short, 'the court below'). The joint trial of all the three petitions was ordered by the court below.

4. The main allegation of the petitioner in OP No.1921/2013 is that the first respondent has been living adulterous life with the second respondent and the child born to the first respondent is that of the second respondent. To prove infidelity and adulterous a