Refusing to grant any relief to the 85-year-old veteran Congress leader Narayan Dutt Tiwari, the Delhi high court on Monday asked him to give his blood sample for undergoing a DNA test on a paternity suit filed by a Delhi-based lawyer Rohit Shekhar, claiming himself to be his biological son.
After hearing the plea of Mr Tiwari, a division bench comprising Justices Vikramjit Sen and Siddharth Mridul reserved their order.
Challenging the single judge bench of the Delhi HC, Mr Tiwari, through his lawyer Jayant Bhushan, had moved the division bench and said that frivolous petition had been moved against him as he was no way linked to Rohit’s mother Ujjwala Sharma, a Congress activist.
On December 23 last year, single judge of the Delhi HC, Justice S. Ravindra Bhatt, had ordered Mr Tiwari to undergo the DNA test to ascertain 31-year-old Rohit’s claim and had said, “It cannot disregard the right of a child to know about his or her biological father.”
Seeking an interim stay on the December 23 order, Mr Bhushan said, “There was no urgency as the petitioner (Rohit) has not sought any pecuniary relief.”
During the court proceedings, Mr Bhushan said, Mr Tiwari cannot be compelled by the court to give his blood sample and cited various Supreme Court judgments on the issue.
The single judge order asking the leader to undergo the test was erroneous as a legal and valid marriage was subsisting between Ms Ujjwala and Mr Bimal Prasad Sharma, the legitimate father of Rohit, Mr Bhushan argued.
Moreover, Ms Ujjwala and Mr Bimal had access to each other and there was conclusive proof that Mr Rohit was their legitimate child, he said.