Delhi High Court imposes cost of Rs 2.5 lakh on N D Tiwari

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court today imposed a cost of Rs 2.5 lakh on Congress leader N D Tiwari for his failure to appear for cross-examination and granted him the last opportunity to record evidence in a paternity suit of a youth seeking to declare him as his biological father.

A bench of justices S Ravindra Bhat and R V Easwar asked 89-year-old Tiwari to pay the cost to Rohit Shekhar, who had filed the paternity suit, and asked the politician to remain present on February 20 before the local commissioner appointed by it to record his evidence.

The court, meanwhile, also rejected the plea that Tiwari, who is having age-related health issues, be allowed to be cross-examined outside the high court premises, preferably at Uttarakhand Sadan here.

The bench was hearing two appeals filed by Tiwari, challenging a previous order rejecting his plea for cross-examination outside the court premises in the paternity suit.

During the hearing, Shekhar's lawyer told the bench that Tiwari had repeatedly failed to comply with the orders of the Supreme Court and the High Court.

Earlier, three High Court judges had recused themselves from hearing the appeals filed by Tiwari.

The single judge bench had on September 18 last year rejected Tiwari's plea to hold his cross-examination outside the High Court premises either at Nehru Bal Bhawan or UP Sadan or Jawahar Lal Nehru National Youth Centre.

The single judge bench had directed him to appear before the local commissioner for recording of his evidence.

Aggrieved by these orders, Tiwari had moved the division bench for quashing of the orders.

The local commissioner had earlier barred Tiwari from leading any evidence in favour of his claim that he did not father 32-year-old Rohit Shekhar.