The Delhi High Court on Thursday reserved judgment on an appeal by a man seeking a direction to former Andhra Pradesh Governor N. D. Tiwari to accept him as his natural son.
A Division Bench of the Court comprising Justice Vikramjit Sen and Justice Manmohan Singh reserved the judgment after conclusion of arguments by counsel for the appellant, Rohit Shekhar, and for Mr. Tiwari.
Justice S. N. Dhingra had last year dismissed a suit filed by Mr. Shekhar seeking the same relief saying that the suit was time-barred and that the Court did not have the jurisdiction to hear it.
Justice Dhingra had held that since the plaintiff had made his mother a defendant in his suit just to create the jurisdiction of the Court as his mother stayed in Delhi, the Court could not exercise territorial jurisdiction on the basis of residence of such a defendant.
Counsel for Mr. Tiwari had argued before Justice Dhingra that that the Court had no territorial jurisdiction to hear the suit because his client was a resident of Andhra Pradesh.
In the appeal against the Single Bench judgment, Mr. Shekhar argued that the Single Bench was wrong in dismissing the suit on the ground of limitation and assuming that Delhi had no jurisdiction.
He submitted that the Single Bench should have either returned or rejected the suit instead of dismissing it on the ground of limitation.
Mr. Shekhar, grandson of former Union Minister Sher Singh, further submitted that he was born of a relationship between Mr. Tiwari and his mother Ujjwala Singh, who is also associated with the Congress.