Paternity vs Legitimacy

Pater est quem nuptiae demonstrant – "the father is he whom the nuptials point out" – is the legal maxim which forms the common law presumption that a child's father is the man married to the child's mother at the time of birth or conception. This presumption is encapsulated within section 112 of the Evidence Act 1950 ("section 112") which provides:

"The fact that any person was born during the continuance of a valid marriage between his mother and any man, or within two hundred and eighty days after its dissolution, the mother remaining unmarried, shall be conclusive proof that he is the legitimate son of that man, unless it can be shown that the parties to the marriage had no access to each other at any time when he could have been begotten."