PARENTAGE UNDER MUSLIM LAW
Parentage is the relation of parents to their children. Maternity is a legal relationship between mother and child and paternity is a legal relationship between father and child. The term parentage generally means the legal relationship which a child has with the parents. These legal relationships have an association with certain rights and duties, such as mutual rights of inheritance, maintenance, and guardianship.
“When one person is deemed in law to be the father or mother of another, paternity or maternity or the latter is said to be established in the former.”
Maternity, how established-
Under Sunni law, one can establish the maternity of a child through the woman who gives birth to the child irrespective of whether the birth was the result of wedlock or Zina (adultery). However, under Shia Law, mere birth is not sufficient to establish maternity; one must prove that the birth was a result of a lawful marriage.
Thus, under Muslim Law, a child born out of a marriage tie is legitimate. And, that child enjoys the status of inheritance from father and mother both. But any child born of adultery, incest, or fornication is illegitimate. Under Sunni law, an illegitimate child has maternity in the woman who gave birth to it. And a mother alone can give away the right of inheritance to the child. However, under Shia law an illegitimate child has neither maternity in the woman who gave birth to the child nor paternity in the father, who begot it, as such under Shia Law, the illegitimate child can inherit neither from father nor mother.
Paternity, how established-
“One Can establish the paternity of a child by marriage between its parents. The marriage may be valid or irregular but it must not be void”. “Paternity is established in the person sad to be the father by proof or legal presumption that the child was begotten by him on a woman who was at the time of conception his lawful wife or was in good faith and reasonably believed by him, to be such or whose marriage being merely irregular and not void ab initio has not at that time been terminated by actual separation.
An issue of void marriage has neither paternity before nor maternity under Shia Law. That is, under Shia law, a bastard is filius nullius i.e., a relation of none. Under Sunni law, an illegitimate child has only paternity, i.e. the ‘maternity’ and ‘paternity’ of a child begotten in consequence of adultery merge together in the mother of the child.
Read more blogs @ advocatetanwar.com