Thaindian News

New Delhi, June 1 (IANS) Veteran Congress leader N.D. Tiwari Wednesday refused to appear before the Delhi High Court and moved an application stating that he cannot be forced to give a blood sample for a DNA test in a paternity suit filed by a 31-year-old man who says Tiwari is his biological father.

Tiwari, 85, moved an application before court Joint Registrar Deepak Garg stating that no pressure could be applied on him to give a sample for the test.

He also requested the joint registrar to reduce the cost of Rs.75,000 imposed on him by the court for seeking the deletion of certain paragraphs from the paternity suit filed against him by Rohit Shekhar.

“As he is a pension earner and has no other property in his name, he cannot give that amount,” Tiwari’s counsel said.

The joint registrar adjourned the matter till July 7 and asked Tiwari to appear before an appropriate bench of the court.

He had earlier asked Tiwari, Shekhar and his mother Ujjwala Sharma to appear in person June 1 in the court’s dispensary to give their blood samples for the DNA test.

The court said the Congress leader and the mother-son duo will have to bear the cost of the DNA test at the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics at Hyderabad.

While Tiwari did not turn up, Shekhar and his mother appeared in the court’s dispensary Wednesday.

The court Dec 23, 2010 turned down Tiwari’s plea that he could not be forced to undergo the DNA test, saying it was the right of a child to know his or her biological father.

The court also rejected Tiwari’s plea for dismissing the petition on the ground that it was filed 31 years after the petitioner was born and was aimed at maligning him.

Tiwari, who has served as chief minister of both Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand as well as a central minister, quit as Andhra Pradesh governor following allegations of his involvement in a sex scandal inside Raj Bhavan.