AFTER years of legal battles, Rohit Shekhar ( 32) appears to have succeeded in getting what he sought: A few drops of Congress veteran N. D. Tiwari’s blood.
On Friday, a division bench of the Delhi High Court ordered a DNA test to be carried out on Tiwari so that it could settle the paternity suit of Shekhar, who claims to be the Congress leader’s son. The bench of Chief Justice A. K. Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw set aside a single- judge order that had stated the high court couldn’t force Tiwari to give his blood.
Instead, the court said Tiwari would have to provide his blood and even authorised police force against him should he disobey the order.
“ The perception of ‘ the law’ as Mr Bumble ( in Oliver Twist ) said: “ is a ass — an idiot”, will be cemented if the courts themselves hold their own orders to be un- implementable and unenforceable,” the division bench said, criticising the single- judge order that had said Tiwari could not be forced to give his blood.
“ It is the duty of every court to prevent its machinery from being made a sham, thereby running down the rule of law and rendering itself an object of public ridicule,” the high court said.