New Delhi: Veteran Congress leader ND Tiwari Wednesday refused to appear before the Delhi High Court and moved an application that he cannot be forced to give blood sample for DNA test in a paternity suit filed by a 31-year-old man who says Tiwari is his biological son.
85-year-old Tiwari, who held several top portfolios with the Union Cabinet and who had quit as Andhra Pradesh governor in December 2009 over allegations of his involvement in a sex scandal, was ordered last week by the High Court's Joint Registrar Deepak Garg to come to the court's dispensary to give his blood sample.
Rohit Shekhar, who claims to be Tiwari's biological son and his mother Ujjwala Sharma, were also asked to present in the court's dispensary to give their respective blood samples for the test.
The DNA tests were to to be conducted at the Centre for DNA, Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD) at Hyderabad.
On a paternity suit by Rohit, a single-judge bench of the Delhi High Court had on December 23 last year asked Tiwari to undergo the DNA test for ascertaining the veracity of his claim that he is Tiwari's biological son.
Refuting Rohit's claim, Tiwari had challenged the High Court's single-judge bench order before its division bench, which too had rejected his appeal, following which he had gone in for the second round of appeal to the apex court on February 28.
But, the apex court too on March 14 refused to stay the high court's order for his DNA test, giving him, however, one significant relief that the result of the test will not be made public unless it is required.
The Delhi high court, meanwhile, also asked Tiwari to pay within a week Rs 75,000 to Rohit as a fine, which was imposed on him in August 2010 for seeking deletion of a paragraph from Rohit's paternity suit.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, June 01, 2011, 15:54