The Delhi High Court today ordered its registrar to take police assistance for bringing defiant veteran Congress leader N D Tiwari here for taking his blood sample to decide the paternity suit of a man claiming to be his son.

"Joint Registrar (JR) shall be entitled to avail police assistance in case the defendant number one (Tiwari) is not available within the jurisdiction of this court. The JR shall seek the police assistance for bringing him in this court for the purpose of taking the blood sample for the DNA test," Justice Reva Khetrapal said.

The court came down heavily on the counsel, representing the 86-year-old Dehradun based Congress leader, after he sought adjournment of hearing on the ground that a petition has been filed in the Supreme Court on the issue.

Referring to various judgements delivered by single- judge, devision bench of high court and the Supreme Court in the matter, Justice Khetrapal said, "it had already been made clear that pendency of a special leave petition in the Supreme Court will not come in way of the proceedings of the case".

The court fixed the matter for further hearing on May 21 before the Joint Registrar, who in turn will fix the date for collection of the blood sample from Tiwari.

The court made it clear that the process of collecting the sample would be initiated within a week after the joint registrar receives the DNA sample kit from Hyderabad-based Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD).

The court in its order said that considering the age of Tiwari, the order of taking the blood sample is required to be implemented "as expeditiously as possible otherwise an irreparable loss is bound to visit the plaintiff".

The court's directions came on the plea of 32-year-old Rohit Shekhar seeking to compel Tiwari to furnish his blood sample at the earliest to decide the four-year-old paternity suit. He has sought a judicial declaration that Tiwari is his biological father.