Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: In a judgement which could turn out to be a major embarrassment, the Delhi High Court on Thursday ordered veteran Congress leader ND Tiwari to undergo a DNA test to ascertain a claim by Rohit Shekhar that he is his biological son.
A single-member bench of Justice S Ravindra Bhatt, while directing the Congress leader to appear before the Joint Registrar of the Delhi High Court on Feb 08, said, “It cannot disregard the right of a child to know about his or her biological father.”
Although, no date has been fixed as to when the veteran leader will undergo the DNA test, it is being said that his blood samples will be taken first and the same will be sent to the Hyderabad based forensic lab Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB).
The report of CCMB will then be sent to the Delhi High Court, which is scheduled to hear the paternity suit some time in May next year.
The High Court bench had reserved its order on September 21 after hearing the contention of Shekhar, his mother Ujjwala Sharma and Tiwari.
Tiwari vehemently opposed the plea of the petitioner and pleaded that he cannot be forced to undergo the DNA test.
The High Court had earlier rejected Tiwari`s plea for dismissal of the petition on the ground that it was filed 31 years after Rohit was born in order to malign his image.
A bench comprising Justices Vikramjit Sen and Mukta Gupta refused to permit Tiwari to amend his application in which he had opposed the claim made in the paternity suit.
84-year-old Tiwari had approached the division bench after a single judge of the High Court had on August 13 dismissed his plea seeking changes in the paternity suit filed by Rohit Shekhar.
Dismissing Tiwari`s application, Justice S Ravindra Bhat had then imposed a cost of Rs 75,000 on him.
Through his application, Tiwari had raised objections to the additional facts incorporated by Rohit Shekhar in his fresh paternity suit.
"Rohit should have sought the court`s permission to amend the suit with the new fact that he had tried to meet Tiwari at an airport in 2005," said Tiwari in his application.
Tiwari had quit as Andhra Pradesh Governor following allegations of his involvement in a sex scandal inside Raj Bhavan.
