HC seeks Hyderabad''s lab help for N D Tiwari''s DNA test

New Delhi, Feb 19 (PTI) The Delhi High Court todaysought the help of Hyderabad-based Centre for CellularMolicular Biology (CCMB) in framing modalities to collectveteran Congress leader N D Tiwari''s blood sample for his DNAtest on a paternity suit by a youth claiming to be hisbiological son.

While asking the high court registry to fax itsrequisition to CCMB for its help, Joint Registrar Deepak Gargalso granted liberty to youth Rohit Shekhar to approach thelab independently if he wished.

The court fixed March 8 as the next date of hearing.

Meanwhile, the court rejected Tiwari''s plea to deferthe formalities on the grounds that he intended to approachthe Supreme Court against the high court''s division benchorder upholding the single judge''s order for his DNA test.

A single-judge had on December 23 last year asked the85-year-old leader to undergo a DNA test on a paternity suitfiled by Shekhar.

On Tiwari''s appeal, challenging the single-judgebench''s order, a division bench of Justices Vikramajit Sen andSiddharth Mridul had turned down his plea to suspend thesingle-judge bench''s order.

"Irreparable loss is bound to visit the plaintiff(Rohit Shekhar) if the orders under the application are notimmediately passed in as much as the suit itself may berendered infructuous and vital evidence may be lost forever,"the bench had said while dismissing the Congress leader''splea.

Tiwari, a former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh andUttarakhand who has held key ministerial portfolios at theCentre, was forced to resign as Andhra Pradesh Governor in2009 amid allegations of sexual misconduct against himfollowing the airing of a sting operation in news channels.