SC to hear N D Tiwari's plea seeking stay on his DNA test

Challenging the High Court order, Tiwari pleaded before the apex court for immediate stay on the ruling as the process of the DNA test has already been set in motion by the court in the three-year-old paternity suit filed by a 31-year-old man claiming to be his biological son.

A bench of justices Aftab Alam and R M Lodha will take up the 85-year-old leader's appeal in which he has submitted that the High Court order was a violation of his right to privacy and will cause irreparable loss to him.

In his 31-page appeal, the former governor of Andhra Pradesh submitted that such tests were not 100 per cent accurate and cannot be relied upon.

"The High Court has also erred in not appreciating that the law of scientific tests is not always 100 per cent foolproof," he said, contending that the court erred in looking only at the purported interest of the child while totally ignoring the concept of balancing the same with his rights.

A single-judge bench of the High Court had on December 23 asked Tiwari to undergo a DNA test on the paternity suit filed by Rohit Shekhar who claims to be Tiwari's biological son born out of the leader's alleged relationship with his mother Ujjawala Sharma.

The court had asked him to undergo the test saying that wider interest of a child of not being declared a "bastard" has to be kept in mind.

The politician, who has held the post of chief minister of undivided Uttar Pradesh and later Uttarakhand, then approached a division bench of the High Court which refused to grant him relief on the test and also imposed a cost of Rs 25,000.

Tiwari, who was forced to resign as governor in the midst of allegations of sexual misconduct, had countered the charges claiming that he never had any physical relationship with Ujjawala, who is also a Congress activist, and Shekhar was not entitled to seek a DNA test as a matter of right.