N. D. Tiwari gets contempt of court notice

Justice Geeta Mittal, referring to her Sep 23 judgment in which she had termed Tiwari's refusal to submit the blood sample "wilful, malicious, unreasonable and unjustified", issued the notice, returnable for Feb 14.

Meanwhile, the court has directed the claimant Rohit Shekhar, his mother Ujjwala Sharma and her former husband B.P. Sharma to appear before the joint registrar Oct 20 to give their blood samples for a DNA test.

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.