New York:
Senior Congress leader ND Tiwari will have to participate in a paternity test, says the Delhi High Court. Tiwari is 85 years old.
Rohit Shekhar, who is 31, claims that Tiwari had a relationship with his mother, Ujjwala Sharma, and that he is their child.
In March this year, the Delhi High Court agreed to hear Shekhar's case. Today, it said, "The wider interest of a child of not being declared a bastard has to be kept in mind...the court cannot disregard the right of a child to know his or her biological father."
Tiwari has been fighting the paternity case vehemently, describing it as an attempt to malign him. He has argued that if Shekhar wanted to prove Tiwari as his biological father, he should have filed his case when he turned 18.
In December 2009, Tiwari was forced to resign as Andhra Governor after an alleged sex scandal. In his resignation letter, Tiwari said he was quitting because of "poor health".
The DNA test will be conducted at the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad. The case will next be heard in May.