Paternity case: Contempt notice to ND Tiwari

PTI

New Delhi, 28 September 2011: Veteran Congress leader N D Tiwari was on Tuesday asked by the Delhi High Court to explain why it should not launch contempt of court proceeding against him for his "deliberate disobedience" of its order to give his blood sample for DNA test to determine a youth’s paternity.

 

"Why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against defendant (Tiwari) for his deliberate, wilful disobedience of the court’s order", Justice Gita Mittal said issuing the contempt notice to Tiwari.

 

The court issued the notice to Tiwari four days after conceding that the 85-year-old leader cannot be compelled to give his blood sample for DNA test as per the court’s last year order.

 

While issuing the notice to Tiwari, Justice Mittal also referred to her last week’s order in which she had taken on record Tiwari’s refusal to comply with court’s previous direction to provide his blood sample for DNA test.

 

"The refusal by Tiwari to submit blood sample is wilful, malafide, unreasonable and unjustified. Such refusal is taken on record," Justice Mittal had said in her September 23 order referring to Tiwari’s persistent refusal to give his blood sample.

 

The court issued the contempt notice to Tiwari on a plea by city youth Rohit Shekhar, who claims to be Tiwari’s biological son born out of the veteran politician’s relationship with Ujjwala Sharma.

 

Shekhar had in July this year moved the high court for initiation of contempt proceedings against Tiwari for his non-compliance with the court’s December 2010 order directing the Congress leader to provide his blood sample to ascertain his claim that Tiwari is Rohit’s biological father.

 

Rohit had moved the high court for bringing Tiwari under the contempt of court provisions saying he had been refusing to comply with the high court’s order to give his blood sample despite its endorsement by the Supreme Court.

 

Tiwari had refused to appear in the high court dispensary on June 1 to give his blood sample saying he cannot be forced for it.

 

While issuing the contempt notice to Tiwari, Justice Mittal today also framed for their determination the legal issues linked to Shekhar’s paternity suit.

 

Justice Mittal said the issues to be determined by the court included if Tiwari is Rohit’s biological father and if Rohit filed the suit to tarnish Tiwari’s image and to obtain financial benefits.

 

In addition, the court also decided to ascertain whether or not B P Sharma, the former husband of Rohit’s mother Ujjawala Sharma, is Shekhar’s biological father.

 

To determine this question, Justice Mittal directed Rohit, Ujjwala Sharma and B P Sharma to provide their blood samples to conduct their DNA profiling.

 

Justice Mittal directed the court’s joint registrar to initiate proceedings for their DNA profiling from October 20 and asked him to fix a date for taking their blood samples.

 

The court also asked Tiwari to be present at the time of collection of their blood samples to ensure that he does not raise any objection in future on the issue.

 

The high court also appointed a retired judicial officer as local commissioner to record testimonies of various parties and directed all the parties to provide the same and other evidence to him.

 

The court has fixed February 15, 2012, for hearing the paternity suit after the local commissioner completes recording of evidence and the joint registrar submits DNA profiles of various people from their blood smaples.

 

On September 23, the high court had ruled that Tiwari cannot be compelled to give blood sample for his DNA test to determine Rohit’s paternity but said his persistent refusal can lead to the presumption that he is his father.

 

"The conscious and emphatic refusal clearly suggests that Tiwari does not wish to run the risk of providing the plaintiff with the evidence that would establish his case and is malafide. The refusal of the respondent(Tiwari) displays no good reason but bad faith," Justice Mittal had said, disapproving of Tiwari’s attitude.