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Paternity plea dismissed

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday dismissed a suit by a 30-year-old man seeking a direction to the Andhra Pradesh Governor, N.D. Tiwari, to accept him as his natural son, saying that the suit was “time-barred” and that “this Court did not have the jurisdiction to hear it.”

Dismissing the suit filed by Rohit Shekhar, Justice S. N. Dhingra said that since the plaintiff had made his mother a defendant in his suit just to create the jurisdiction of the this Court as his mother stayed in Delhi, the Court could not exercise territorial jurisdiction on the basis of residence of such a defendant.

“On the basis of residence of such a defendant, I, therefore, consider that this Court has no territorial jurisdiction to entertain the instant suit,” Mr. Justice Dhingra said.

Counsel for Mr. Tiwari had argued that this Court had no territorial jurisdiction to hear the suit because his client was a resident of Andhra Pradesh.

On the plea of Mr. Shekhar that his mother and Mr. Tiwari should make a joint publication in the newspaper that the plaintiff was their son, counsel for Mr. Tiwari argued that no such relief could be granted by the Court as it could not compel a person to make a publication in the newspaper of any fact.

Mr. Justice Dhingra observed: “The plaintiff became a major in 1997, he could have sought a declaration from the Court within three years of becoming a major.”

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