Date for Tiwari’s DNA test to be decided March 8

NEW DELHI - Delhi High Court’s Joint Registrar Deepak Garg Saturday deferred to March 8 a decision on the date for the DNA test on Congress leader N.D. Tiwari in a paternity suit.

He also issued notice to the Centre for Cellular Microbiology in Hyderabad seeking an explanation for not discussing the test procedure with the court.

He has asked the centre to reply on the issue before March 8. Tiwari can undergo the DNA test only after the institute files its reply.

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

The high court had Feb 10 dismissed Tiwari’s petition challenging the DNA test order.

The formalities as to how and where Tiwari’s blood sample will be drawn for his DNA test would be determined March 8 by 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.