Srinagar: The case of a Srinagar woman, who sued an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer alleging him to be the father of her minor daughter, has caught up the pace in a court in the capital city.
As per the woman’s plea in the court, an IAS officer posted in Kashmir converted to Islam, married her in May 2010, and during wedlock a daughter was born. Later, she alleged that she and the child were abandoned when the officer was transferred to central deputation.
The Court of Second Additional Munsiff, Srinagar, issued fresh directions to defendant officer Sundhanshu Pandey – also referred to as Syed Sudhanshu in the petition – to appear in person for recording of the statement and file in writing whether he consents if court contemplates to pass an order for the DNA test to check parentage of the minor girl, said Mir Naveed Gul, the advocate representing the petitioner.
In another case filed in the High Court, wherein the woman demanded monthly maintenance in the same issue, Justice Sanjey Dhar had ordered last year for the parentage suit to be completed first in the lower court.
As per the filings in the court, it is learnt that the woman had challenged an order passed by the Judicial Magistrate First Class (2nd Additional Munsiff), Srinagar, that deferred the proceedings till the outcome of the civil suit in which question of paternity of the petitioner is in issue.
In the petition, it was alleged that in 2010, when Pandey was holding the position of Finance Secretary in the Government of Jammu and Kashmir, he developed a relationship with the woman in Srinagar.
In May 2010, Pandey converted to Islam, whereafter he entered into wedlock with the woman. The woman pleads that their daughter was born on 12 April 2011, however, a few months later, in October 2012, Pandey was transferred to New Delhi and he left the woman and minor in Srinagar.
As per the court documents, the woman also claimed to have visited the native place of the officer, in Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow, where they came to know that Pandey was already a married man with two children and a practicing Hindu. The marriage between the woman and Pandey then dissolved by default.
However, Pandey refuted all the allegations and denied marrying the woman. The allegations made in the petition are just a figment of imagination and a device to scandalize his reputation and image, he responded in the court.
“It is averred that in the civil suit, mother of the petitioner has admitted that she had entered into wedlock with another person on 1st August, 2010 which ended in divorce in October, 2010,” Pandey responded in the court. And that the minor was a child from the woman’s first marriage.
Both the parties presented conflicting birth certificates and medical records of the child, with two different names as father. Then the high court had ordered for the finalization of the parentage suit first before passing any order for maintenance.
