Tiwari's plea against DNA test dismissed

The Delhi high court on Thursday dismissed veteran Congress leader N D Tiwari's appeal against its earlier order, asking him to undergo a DNA test on a plea made by a Delhi youth claiming to be his biological son.

A division bench of Justice Vikramajit Sen and Siddharth Mridul also imposed a cost of Rs 25,000 on Tiwari while dismissing his plea challenging the court's single-judge order asking him to undergo the DNA test.

"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 while dismissing the Congress leader's plea.

A single-judge bench of the high court had on December 23 asked the 85-year-old leader to undergo a DNA test on the paternity suit filed by Delhi youth Rohit Shekhar, who claims to be his biological son born out of the leader's alleged relationship with his mother Ujjawala Sharma.

The division bench had on Monday reserved its order on Tiwari's petition, dismissing his plea to suspend the single-judge bench's order at least for the time being so that the proposed court proceedings, slated for Tuesday to determine issues related to withdrawal of his blood sample for DNA test, could be deferred.

Appearing for Tiwari, senior advocate Jayant Bhushan had sought an interim stay on the December 23 order, arguing, "There is no urgency as the petitioner (Rohit) has not sought any pecuniary relief".

"Can your client (Tiwari) file an affidavit that he would remain alive for the next ten years," the bench had shot back, turning down the plea. Bhushan had also contended that Tiwari cannot be compelled by the court to give his blood sample and there were various Supreme Court judgements on the issue.

Bhushan had contended that the single-judge order asking Tiwari to undergo the test should be dismissed as Ujjwala was married to Bimal Prasad Sharma, the legitimate father of Rohit.

Moreover, Ujjwala and Bimal had access to each other and there was conclusive proof that Rohit was their legitimate child, he said. He also argued that the words paternity and legitimacy were interchangeable and no distinction could 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.