Veteran Congress leader Narayan Dutt Tiwari moved the Delhi High Court today against its Single- Judge order to disclose the DNA report openly to decide the paternity suit of a youth claiming as his biological son. Tiwari, 87, in his appeal before the division bench said his DNA test report which is scheduled to be opened tomorrow (July 27) should be kept confidential as the Single-Judge, who had refused to do so did not appreciate some aspects of the case and his reputation is at stake. In his appeal, the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister pleaded that the Court should protect his ‘right to reputation’ saying the Single-Judge bench had failed to appreciate his appeal and adopted a short-cut to decide the suit.
The disclosure of the DNA report openly will cause grave injustice to him, he said. Tiwari sought to quash the Single-Judge’s July 20 order saying the Court should have appreciated the fact that in a civil dispute, where no criminality is involved and the position of parties is undisputed, the right to reputation of parties has to be protected. Earlier, the Court had dismissed Tiwari’s plea seeking to keep the DNA report confidential and said the report will be opened in the Court on July 27. Tiwari blamed Rohit Shekhar, the man claiming to be Tiwari’s son and his mother Ujwalla for leaving no stone unturned to make the report unseal and make it public to attract undue media attraction without completion of trial, Tiwari said. On directions of the High Court as well as Supreme Court, Tiwari had given his blood sample on May 29 at his Dehradun residence which was sent to Hyderabad-based Laboratory For DNA fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD) for DNA testing. Rohit Shekhar, 32, claimed that Tiwari was his biological father as he had relations with his mother Ujwalla. Rohit sought Court’s intervention to ascertain the truth about his paternity. Shekhar had filed a civil suit in 2008 to get the blood sample but despite High Court and Supreme Court’s directions several times, Tiwari had been evading giving the blood sample to ascertain paternity claims ever since. UNI