HC to hear paternity suit against N D Tiwari

In a setback to former Andhra Pradesh governor N D Tiwari, the Delhi high court on Wednesday dismissed his plea and decided to adjudicate a paternity suit filed by a man claiming to be his son.

A division bench headed by Justice Vikramjit Sen dismissed the plea of the 84-year-old Congress leader who sought dismissal of the petition on the ground that it was filed 31 years after the petitioner was born.

The court set aside a single bench order which had dismissed the paternity suit filed by Rohit Shekhar, a law graduate, on the ground that it was not maintainable.

The bench directed all the parties to appear before the single judge on April 7 when the suit will be heard on merits. Tiwari had to demit office as Andhra Pradesh governor in the wake of a sting operation that purportedly showed him in a compromising position with three women.

The court had on March 11 reserved its order on the suit.

The politician had vehemently opposed entertaining of the petition filed by Shekhar seeking the court's direction to declare Tiwari as his biological father.

Shekhar filed an appeal before the division bench challenging the single bench order which had dismissed his petition on the ground that it was not maintainable.

Justice S N Dhingra had on November 3 last said the suit filed by Shekhar was not maintainable and allowed the plea of Tiwari who had sought dismissal of the petition.

The court had said it has no territorial jurisdiction to hear the case as Tiwari, the then Andhra Pradesh Governor, was in Hyderabad and a suit against him could be filed only in that city.

Shekhar filed the suit claiming he was born out of a relationship between his mother Ujjwala Sharma and Tiwari, a charge denied by the latter.

Tiwari was earlier directed by the court in November 2008 to file his reply in which he had refuted all the allegations and submitted that the suit was filed to malign him.

Image: Former Andhra Pradesh Governor N D Tiwari