N.D. Tiwari to undergo DNA test

NEW DELHI - The Delhi High Court Thursday dismissed Congress leader N.D. Tiwari’s petition challenging a DNA test ordered on a plea filed by a young man claiming to be his biological son.

A division bench of Justice Vikramajit Sen and Justice Siddharth Mridul also imposed a fine of Rs.25,000 on Tiwari.

“Irreparable loss is bound to visit the plaintiff (Rohit Shekhar) if the orders under the application are not immediately passed in as much as the suit itself may be rendered infructuous and vital evidence may be lost forever,” the bench said.

A single-judge bench of the high court Dec 23, 2010 has asked the 85-year-old leader to undergo a DNA test on the paternity suit filed by Delhi-based Rohit Shekhar, 31, who claimed to be his biological son born out of the leader’s alleged relationship with his mother Ujjwala Sharma.

The division bench had Monday reserved its order on Tiwari’s petition to allow the lawyers for the two sides to complete formalities Tuesday regarding when and where to collect Tiwari’s blood sample.

Appearing for Tiwari, senior advocate Jayant Bhushan had sought an interim stay on the Dec 23 order, arguing that “there was no urgency as the petitioner (Rohit) has not sought any pecuniary relief”.

“Moreover, Ujjwala and Bimal had access to each other and there was conclusive proof that Rohit was their legitimate child,” said Bhushan.

He also argued that the words paternity and legitimacy were interchangeable and no distinction can be drawn between them.

Rohit’s counsel Sudhir Nandrajog, however, opposed Tiwari’s plea saying paternity and legitimacy were two distinct issues and the single judge had rightly asked him to undergo the test.

The judge had asked Tiwari to undergo the DNA test saying the wider interest of a person of not being declared an illegitimate child had to be kept in mind.

The formalities as to how and where Tiwari’s blood sample will be drawn for his DNA test on Shekhar’s paternity suit would be determined Feb 19 by the high court’s Joint Registrar Deepak Garg in the presence of the counsel of the two parties.

Tiwari, who had held the posts of chief minister of undivided Uttar Pradesh and later Uttarakhand, had opposed the paternity suit.

Tiwari, who last year resigned as Andhra Pradesh governor in the wake of allegations of sexual misconduct, countered the claims and said he never had any physical relationship with Ujjwala, who is also a Congress activist. Shekhar, he said, was not entitled to seek a DNA test as a matter of right.