India, May 31 -- Can a man's right to privacy defeat a child's lifelong search for the identity of his father? The Supreme Court answered that question by directing a DNA test and holding that courts must balance both interests, particularly where paternity lies at the heart of the dispute and no other evidence can provide a definitive answer.

A bench of justices Sanjay Karol and N Kotiswar Singh, on Friday, dismissed an appeal by a man resisting a DNA examination and upheld an order directing genetic testing to determine whether he was the biological father of the claimant born in 1999.

Balancing competing rights, the court said that the case involved not merely the privacy concerns of the alleged father but also the claimant's lifelon...