Delhi High court issues notice to ND Tiwari on paternity suit

The Delhi High Court today issued notice to veteran politician and former Andhra Pradesh governor ND Tiwari on a paternity suit filed by a youth claiming to be his biological son.A Bench headed by chief justice AP Shah asked Tiwari to give his response by February 9 on the suit filed by Rohit Shekhar, 30, seeking its direction to declare Tiwari is his biological father.Shekhar filed an appeal before a Division Bench challenging a single-bench order which had dismissed his petition on the ground that it was not maintainable.    Justice SN Dhingra had on November 3 last said the suit filed by Shekhar is not maintainable and allowed the plea of 84-year-old Tiwari who had sought dismissal of the petition.The court had said it has no territorial jurisdiction to hear the case as Tiwari, then Andhra Pradesh gvernor, was in Hyderabad and a suit against him could be filed only in that city. The appeal comes within days of Tiwari resigning as governor in the wake of a sex scandal with a news channel purportedly showing him in a compromising position with three women. Tiwari has dismissed the allegation as "baseless".A law graduate, Shekhar, 30, filed the suit claiming he was born out of an intimate relationship between his mother Ujjwala Sharma and Tiwari, a charge denied by the latter.Tiwari was earlier directed by the court in November 2008 to file his reply in which he had refuted all the allegations and submitted that the suit was filed to malign him.