SUCCESSION RIGHT OF THE CHILD BORN OUT OF WEDLOCK: AN APPRAISAL OF THE NIGERIAN LAW ON LEGITIMIZATION AND THE ISLAMIC LAW

Succession is a common social challenge. Different people have different approach to it. Pluralism is a feature of Nigerian Legal system due to the presence of people of diverse culture, religion and language. Inheritance of a child born out of wedlock is especially knotty. The law had denied him the right to inherit from his putative father until 1979 when the Nigeria Constitution proscribed discrimination against any Nigerian on the basis of the circumstances of their birth. The same provision is preserved in the 1999 Constitution. The effect is that once the putative father acknowledges the child he is entitled to succeed to his father’s estate after his demise. Shari’ah, the Islamic law, is another system of law in Nigeria which is applicable to the Muslims. Most Muslim jurists hold the opinion that a child born out of wedlock can only inherit from his mother. This opinion is not consensual though. A significant minority has held that the child can inherit from his biological father after acknowledgement. Views of the two schools of thought in this matter were examined in this paper. It was discovered that the opinion that the child born out of wedlock can inherit both parents after legitimation through acknowledgement is preponderant and in tandem with the provision of the Nigerian Constitution and natural justice.

Maternal allele mutation: Slippage synthesis furnishing evolutionary trend

Gain or loss of repeat motifs leads to an allelic mismatch in the disputed child which is a deviation from the Mendelian inheritance, thereby leading to a paternal mismatch of putative father or exclusion of mother in case of maternal allelic mismatch. This allelic mismatch at one or more loci is a major cause of forensic inferences. The biological samples of the case were genotyped using Powerplex®- Fusion 5C system kit and Investigator® Argus X-12 QS kit as per recommendations of the manufacturer. In this case, identification of a putrefied dead body with 22 autosomal STR loci, primarily analyzed by Powerplex®- Fusion 5C system kit divulged a maternal mismatch at locus D13S317. Alleles at the locus D13S317 allegedly belonging to the father of the deceased and the mother were observed as 10/11, 11/11 and 10/10 respectively. To rule out allelic mismatch at this particular locus, 12 X-STR loci were amplified, in which all the maternal alleles of deceased completely matched with the mother. This case study indicates the extension of one microsatellite repeat motif (TATC) at locus D13S317 in the population of Rajasthan. The reported mutation rate was 0.14% and 0.04% at locus D13S317 in paternal and maternal meiosis respectively.

A Polemical Discourse over the Legitimation of Illegitimate Children under Islamic Law

Muslim jurists unanimously agree that any woman that gives birth to a child, the child is to be attributed to her husband and legitimacy of that child is to be established except in circumstances where the child is disclaimed by the husband through imprecation (li’an). However, dissension over the legitimation of children born out of wedlock has long been recorded in the classical books of Islamic Jurisprudence, although the majority of jurists’ opinion secured an overwhelming preponderance over others. The argument over the legitimation has recently been advanced in order to find a feasible solution to the alarming condition of children born out of wedlock. Interestingly, both opponents and proponents of the legitimation of illegitimate children among Muslim scholars buttress their arguments with the famously narrated hadith “al-walad lil firash” (“The child is traced to the owner of the bed i.e. the legitimate husband).” on the subject matter. Therefore, this article seeks to explore juristic interpretations of the hadith and the rationale behind the scholars’ dissention. This article is a result of a research that has been done through the adoption of a qualitative approach of research, which includes doctrinal and non-doctrinal legal research methodologies. It has been found that attributing a child to his putative father after the acknowledgement does not contravene the fundamental principle of Shariah; it is rather an opinion held by the majority of classical Muslim scholars.

Law Relating to Children

Courts play the role of a guardian angel in promoting and protecting the interests of children. The Guardians and Wards Act, 1890, introduced major reforms in matters of jurisdiction of Indian Courts, appointment of a guardian to secure the welfare of a child, recognition by an Indian court of a foreign court’s order as to the custody and guardianship of a minor, as also the rights of a guardian so appointed under the law of a foreign country. Courts play a major role in matters relating to the upbringing of children. The higher judiciary plays the role of parens patriae in preserving and promoting the welfare of children and restoring children to their habitual residence in cases of their abduction by either of the spouses. On the subject of guardianship of children born out of wedlock, courts recognize the mother as the natural guardian in preference to the putative father.

Mothers may shape the variations in social organization among gorillas

When mothers continue to support their offspring beyond infancy, they can influence the fitness of those offspring, the strength of social relationships within their groups, and the life-history traits of their species. Using up to 30 years of demographic data from 58 groups of gorillas in two study sites, this study extends such findings by showing that mothers may also contribute to differences in social organization between closely related species. Female mountain gorillas remained with their sons for significantly longer than western gorillas, which may explain why male philopatry and multimale groups are more common among mountain gorillas. The presence of the putative father and other familiar males did not vary significantly between species, and we found only limited support for the socio-ecological theory that the distribution of adult males is influenced by the distribution of females. Within each gorilla species, variations in those distributions may also reflect the different stages in the typical life cycle of a group. Collectively, our results highlight the potentially far-reaching consequences of maternal support that extends beyond infancy, and they illustrate the opportunity to incorporate additional factors into phylogenetic analyses of variations in social organization, including studies of human evolution.