Tiwari got HC relief in paternity case

On november 3,2009,the Delhi High Court dismissed a paternity suit against Andhra Pradesh Governor N D Tiwari simply by agreeing that the claim was not maintainable....

On november 3,2009,the Delhi High Court dismissed a paternity suit against Andhra Pradesh Governor N D Tiwari simply by agreeing that the claim was not maintainable.

Justice S N Dhingra did not give any further reason for the dismissal of the paternity claim hotly contested by 29-year-old Rohit Shekhar,grandson of former Union minister Sher Singh,who even brought on record a written statement given by his mother Ujjwala Sharma,once the general secretary of All India Young Women Congress,that Tiwari had gone back on his word to accept Shekhar as his biological son.

The case had initially gone great guns for Rohit with the High Court once even summoning Tiwari to appear before it. Justice Reva Khetrapal,who was hearing the case before it was transferred to Justice Dhingra,had refused to exempt Tiwari from personal appearance in her judicial chambers. The judge had said that Tiwari was not above the law and his presence was required as it was a family matter. The personal summons was later set aside.

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The High Court finally agreed with the 85-year-old Governor,who rejected the allegations,contending that the suit was only meant to defame him and it was not maintainable under the Law of Limitation as it had been filed 29 years after Shekhar was born.

In her statement,Sharma claimed she had believed the repeated requests,and convinced of the love and affection shown by Tiwari,hailing from a respectable and prestigious family,she submitted to emotional pressure and that culminated in the birth of Rohit Shekhar. Referring to her association with the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister,Sharma had submitted that their relationship developed when Tiwari visited her when she was living with her father,who was then an MP. Though there was a considerable difference in age,Tiwari kept trying to win my confidence and establish a close relationship when I was having a marital dispute with my husband, Sharma said.

Every time we used to meet,he used to insist that he was issueless and since his wife could not have a child on account of some medical problem,we should have a child of our own. He impressed upon me that he would complete the formalities of marriage after our divorces, she said.

Sharma,now legally separated from her husband,alleged in her plea that Tiwari started losing interest in Rohit after becoming an MP and started threatening her. After the death of his wife in 1993,Tiwari had once again assured that he would acknowledge Rohit publicly as his son by way of adoption but when reminded in 1995 he refused to talk to me, she said.