“The right of the child legitimate or illegitimate under the code is an individual right to the child in his or on her own right, independent of the mother. When a woman claims maintenance on behalf of a minor child out of wedlock against his alleged putative father, the on us is on her to show that the child could only have been born through the alleged father under he circumstances of an exclusive relationship. While deciding the case of entitlement of a child, paternity and not legitimacy has to be seen. Where maintenance is claimed for an illegitimate child from an alleged father, it is not enough that the defendant would have been the father, but the court has to find out that in all reasonability no one else could have been the father.”
(Hon'ble Justice A. Pasayat of orissa High Court in Smt. Ahalya Bariha alias Barihani V/s. Chhelia Padhan, 1992 Cri. L.J.493 at page 494 and 495 para 5 and 6)
