ND Tiwari paternity row: Youth submits reports in HC in favour of claim

Rohit Shekhar, seeking to get ND Tiwari declared as his biological father, submitted before Delhi HC copies of recent news reports in which the Congress veteran reportedly admitted him as his son.

New Delhi: Rohit Shekhar, seeking to get N D Tiwari declared as his biological father, on Monday submitted before the Delhi High Court copies of recent news reports in which the Congress veteran reportedly admitted him as his son.

The counsel for the 32-year-old Shekhar cited a legal provision before a bench of Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw, saying the law empowers a court to pass a decree on the ground of the admissions made by a defendant. "We cannot solely rely on media reports," the bench said, adding let the counsel for Tiwari, 89, appear before the court tomorrow morning for advancing arguments in the case. Vedant Verma, appearing for Rohit, gave copies of four news reports, published in prominent English dailies on March 4 this year, to the court and said that Tiwari has accepted before the media that Rohit is his son and it was a crucial evidence for passing of a decree. Rohit, in 2008, had filed the paternity suit, claiming the veteran Congress leader and 67-year-old Ujjwala Sharma were his biological parents. Earlier, the court had rejected the plea of Tiwari that he be allowed to "explore" the possibilities of an "amicable" out-of-court settlement of the 2008 paternity suit, saying that the other parties were not agreeing to the proposal. However, the counsel for Tiwari had reiterated that he was still willing to go for the mediation. The court had also closed the right of Tiwari to lead evidence as he failed to appear and testify in the case. The court had on July 27, 2012 read out that the DNA report in the case according to which Tiwari was shown as Rohit`s biological father. Tiwari had given blood sample for the DNA test on May 29 last year at his residence in Dehradun following the apex court`s order in the case, after repeatedly contesting against undergoing the test on various grounds.