Husband cannot skip maintenance of child
📝 AI Summary — Plain-Language Overview
This case is about a father who tried to avoid paying maintenance for his child by claiming the child was illegitimate. The father argued that the child was born about 11 months after he and his wife had separated, and used this timing to suggest the child was not his.
Both the Family Court and the Appellate Court had already ordered him to pay monthly maintenance for the minor child, and he challenged this by filing a constitutional petition in the Lahore High Court.
The High Court rejected the father's argument. It held that under Islamic law, a child born to a married woman is presumed to be legitimate, and this presumption stands unless there is strong, credible proof to the contrary. Simply alleging that the wife had an affair or disowning the child was not enough. The court noted that the father had not taken the proper legal route of seeking Li'an (a formal Islamic procedure for a husband to deny paternity), which further weakened his case. Since there was no solid evidence proving the child was illegitimate, the child was legally presumed to be the father's own and therefore entitled to maintenance.
The court dismissed the father's petition and upheld the maintenance order. This case matters because it reinforces that fathers cannot easily deny responsibility for a child born during marriage, protecting children's rights to support and legitimacy in the absence of solid proof otherwise.
یہ مقدمہ ایک والد سے متعلق ہے جس نے اپنے بچے کو ناجائز قرار دے کر اس کا نان ونفقہ ادا کرنے سے بچنے کی کوشش کی۔ والد کا موقف تھا کہ بچہ اس کی اور اس کی بیوی کی علیحدگی کے تقریباً گیارہ ماہ بعد پیدا ہوا تھا، اور اس نے اس وقت کے تعین کو بنیاد بناتے ہوئے یہ ظاہر کرنے کی کوشش کی کہ بچہ اس کا نہیں ہے۔
فیملی کورٹ اور اپیلٹ کورٹ دونوں پہلے ہی اسے نابالغ بچے کے لیے ماہانہ نان ونفقہ ادا کرنے کا حکم دے چکی تھیں، جس کے خلاف اس نے لاہور ہائی کورٹ میں آئینی درخواست دائر کی۔
ہائی کورٹ نے والد کے دلائل مسترد کر دیے۔ عدالت نے قرار دیا کہ اسلامی قانون کے تحت شادی شدہ عورت سے پیدا ہونے والے بچے کو جائز تصور کیا جاتا ہے، اور یہ قانونی مفروضہ اس وقت تک برقرار رہتا ہے جب تک اس کے برخلاف ٹھوس اور معتبر ثبوت پیش نہ کیے جائیں۔ محض یہ الزام لگانا کہ بیوی کے کسی اور کے ساتھ ناجائز تعلقات
Generated from the full judgment text below — not a substitute for reading the actual opinion.
Father cannot skip to pay the maintenance of a child in any way. It is the liability of a father to pay his children till they reach the age of majority. This very principle is discussed in the judgment below where a father alleges his wife to have given birth to an illegitimate child. The child was born after 11 months from the time when husband and wife were living separately. In Islamic law a child is legitimate even if he is born after two years of intercourse between husband and wife. On the same grounds the High Court of Lahore decided the Writ Petition of Husband filed against his wife and the order of maintenance was maintained.. Citation Name : 2007 CLC 1145 LAHORE-HIGH-COURT-LAHORE Side Appellant : ZAHEER AHMAD Side Opponent : Mst. NASIMAN BIBI alias NASIM BIBI ---S. 5---Constitution of Pakistan (1973), Art. 199---Constitutional petition---Legitimacy of child ---Maintenance---Family Court as well as Appellate Court burdened the father with monthly maintenance of the minor child ---Father denied maintenance on the ground that child was born on 7-11-2004, at a point of time when the spouse had been living in desertion since, 2-12-2003 and the child was born after 11 months and 5 days from desertion---Validity---Father was denying maintenance to the child , disowning him as his issue and accusing mother of the child of having given birth to an Illegitimate child ---Question of legitimacy of child had a far reaching impact, therefore, determination of such question should not be taken lightly---Allegation by husband, or his act of disowning child born out of wedlock, should not be given weight, without strict proof in such regard to the contrary---Paternity of child born out of lawful wedlock, had a presumption of truth in its favour---Simple denial would not take away status of legitimacy and according to Islamic Law, "child follows the bed"---Every presumption was made in favour of legitimacy of child and was presumed to be an issue of his parents without any acknowledgement or affirmation of parentage on the part of father---Courts had always leaned in favour of legitimacy of a child , in absence of any cogent evidence to the contrary---No proof on record was available to support the contention of father that child was Illegitimate ---Moreso, when father had not approached the court of competent jurisdiction for Li'an thus the child who was born in wedlock was a legitimate child and as such entitled to be maintained by father--Judgments and decrees passed by two Courts below were maintained---Petition was dismissed in circumstances.