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paternity suit
Delhi HC denies relief to Tiwari
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 7
A Delhi High Court Division Bench today rejected Uttarakhand former Chief Minister Narayan Dutt Tiwari’s plea for stopping the DNA test proceedings, which start tomorrow, for ascertaining the claim of a man in a paternity suit.

Rohit Shekhar, 31, had pleaded for a paternity test to verify his claim that he was born out of a relation between the Congress leader and his mother Ujjwala Sharma, a former Congress activist.

Tiwari and Shekhar will appear before the HC’s joint registrar tomorrow, either in person or through their counsel, and begin the formalities for the DNA test.

Shekhar’s lawyer Kirtiman Singh said the Bench of Justice Vikramajit Sen and Justice Siddharth Mridul kept its verdict reserved after the arguments concluded today.

Tiwari, who is also a former Andhra Pradesh Governor, had appealed against the December 23 order of Justice S Ravindra Bhat, who had asked him to undergo the DNA test, as “it was a child’s right to know the identity of his father”.

Shekhar told The Tribune that Tiwari was trying to delay the matter. Tiwari has challenged Bhat’s order, saying it was wrong in law to force him to undergo DNA test in a matter of paternity suit. Shekhar claims that Tiwari used to regularly meet him and his mother Ujjwala Sharma in his childhood days and assured them that he would adopt him. He, however, changed his attitude later and stopped meeting them altogether.