Paternity suit: Tiwari's cross examination fixed for Aug 21

New Delhi, July 1: The Local Commissioner, appointed by the Delhi High Court earlier, today fixed August 21 for cross examination of veteran Congress leader ND Tiwari on a youth's paternity suit to declare Tiwari as his biological father.

In January this year, the High Court had appointed Retired Additional District Judge S M Chopra as local commissioner and ordered recording of evidence in the matter on a day-to-day basis. Chopra, who concluded the cross examination of plaintiff Rohit Shekhar, asked Tiwari to file the affidavit in evidence within four weeks.

"In so far as the Commissioner is concerned, a date is being fixed for cross examination of defendant (Tiwari) after six weeks from today to enable the counsel for the other parties to prepare for the cross examination....," Chopra said and fixed August 21 and 22 for Tiwari's cross examination.

Meanwhile, the counsel for Tiwari submitted his client has a plan to move an application before the court seeking an order to conduct the cross examination outside Delhi.

Since April, Chopra has been holding regular hearings in the high court complex for the examination of evidence in the case after the counsel for the 88-year-old Congress leader had refused to settle the lawsuit out of the court through mediation, saying there was a possibility that the medical evidence was not hundred percent accurate.

The high court had on July 27 last year read out the DNA report in the case as per which Tiwari was shown as Shekhar's biological father. Tiwari's DNA report had been read out by a single-judge bench of the high court after a division bench dismissed his appeal against the single judge's July 19 decision, concurring with the latter's order that the report cannot be kept confidential.

PTI