Delhi court asks for Tiwari's blood sample

The veteran Congress leader will have to provide the specimen on June 1 for a DNA test

In spite of endless efforts made by veteran Congress leader ND Tiwari to avoid a DNA test, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday ordered him to appear in the court dispensary on June 1 to give his blood sample for the test to check the veracity of Rohit Shekhar's claim that he is the leader's biological son.


Blood relations: Rohit Shekhar with his mother Ujjwala. file pic

The court also asked 31-year-old Rohit and his mother Ujjwala Sharma to be present in the court's dispensary to give their respective blood samples for the test. "Let all the persons concerned appear in person on June 1 to give their blood samples for the requisite DNA test," Joint Registrar Deepak Garg said.

The court also said that the former Andhra Pradesh governor and the mother-son duo will have to bear the cost of their DNA tests at the Centre for DNA, Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD) at Hyderabad. The court, which had earlier issued notice to the chief medical officer of the Delhi High Court dispensary, was today informed that a doctor has already been appointed to collect blood samples of the three, including the 85-year-old politician.

The judges also asked the counsel for Tiwari to pay Rs 75,000 to Rohit Shekhar as a fine, which was imposed on him for making a plea to the court to delete a paragraph from Rohit's paternity suit, within a week. Confident of positive results, Rohit Shekhar said, "Tiwari's lawyer maintained that his client was too old and not keeping well. But in the court we showed newspaper cuttings in which from January till today Tiwari was seen carrying out political campaigns in Dehradun, Haldwani and whole of Uttarakhand. He was clearly flouting the directives of the Supreme Court."

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 a 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 court had sought the CDFD assistance in fixing modalities for DNA test of Tiwari to ascertain the Shekhar's claim. The response of the laboratory was required as to how it would go about the test and how much time will it take in ascertaining the outcome.

The Joint Registrar would record evidence to enable the regular court to decide the plea of Rohit Shekhar that he be declared the son of the veteran Congress leader. Justice Gita Mittal had modified an earlier order asking CDFD, instead of Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), to conduct the DNA test.