Answer
Based on official Jordanian legal texts
A denial-of-paternity claim is the lawsuit in which a husband asks the Sharia court to negate the lineage of a child born on his marital bed — that is, to rule the child is not his. It is among the narrowest and most tightly bounded claims in Jordanian law, unlike the comparatively open lineage-establishment claim.
Why so narrow?
Because two interests collide: the husband's interest in not having attributed to him a child who is not his, and the child's interest in a stable lineage shielded from challenge. Law and jurisprudence struck the balance in the child's favor as the default: a child born on the marital bed belongs to the husband, and denial is heard only under strict conditions.
The core constraints
- Immediate initiative: the husband must move to deny promptly upon learning of the birth or pregnancy, without conduct implying acceptance; long silence and acting as a father forfeit the right to deny.
- No prior acknowledgment: one who acknowledged the lineage expressly or implicitly (congratulations, naming, treating the child as his own) is barred from denying afterwards.
- The special route: denial within a subsisting marriage has its dedicated Sharia procedure — li'an before the judge — with its precise steps and conditions.
- Substantive limits: denial contradicting decisive facts is not entertained; the court weighs every indication carefully and may use medical expertise within its assessment.
Effect of a denial ruling
The lineage and its effects are severed on the husband's side (inheritance, maintenance), while the child's lineage from the mother remains, with the rights on her side intact.
This is among the most consequential personal-status claims for everyone involved; neither bring it nor face it without a specialized lawyer scrutinizing the facts and the time limits.
This is a general answer based on available Jordanian legal sources and does not replace advice from a specialized lawyer in an actual dispute.