Paternity case: HC judge recuses from hearing pleas of Tiwari

A Delhi High Court judge has recused herself from hearing two appeals of veteran Congress leader N D Tiwari challenging a previous order rejecting his plea for cross examination outside court premises in a paternity suit.
"I have dealt with the matter on the original side. So the petitions be listed before some other bench," Justice Gita Mittal said and posted the matter on January 15.
A bench comprising justices Mittal and Deepa Sharma was to hear on Friday the two separate appeals filed by 89-year-old Tiwari against the orders of single judge bench in the paternity suit filed by a youth seeking to declare him as his biological father.

The single judge bench, on September 18, 2013, had 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.
It had directed the leader to appear before the local commissioner, appointed by the high court, for recording of evidence in the paternity suit.
Tiwari did not appear and instead moved an application seeking postponement of cross-examination for eight weeks. The court rejected this plea also.

Aggrieved by these orders, Tiwari moved the division bench for quashing of the orders.
"No prejudice is going to be caused if appellant (Tiwari) is allowed to be crossed-examined at UP Sadan/UP Bhawan or Uttarakhand Bhawan or at Rouse Avenue, New Delhi or at Lucknow due to his age ailments," one of the applications said.

Tiwari further said that he cannot take up cross examination for longer time as he feels tired.
Earlier, the court had given him the last opportunity to file his affidavit within a week.
On August 21, last year, local commissioner S M Chopra, a retired additional district judge, after recording the submission of the counsel, concluded the recording of evidence as Tiwari failed to file his affidavit in evidence.