Associated Journals Ltd (AJL), the publisher of National Herald newspaper, has approached the Division Bench of Delhi High Court challenging a single judge order asking it to vacate its head quarters Herald House. On December 21, Justice Sunil Gaur’s judgment directed the publisher to vacate the office within two weeks, ratifying the Urban Development Ministry’s eviction notice citing series of violations in the land allotment agreement.
AJL is headed by Congress leader Motilal Vora and the company was taken over by a new firm called Young Indian, controlled by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi with 76 per cent shares.
Advocate Sunil Fernandes, representing the AJL, said the appeal was filed on Saturday evening and it is likely to come up for hearing on January 9. The high court had dismissed the AJL’s plea challenging the Centre’s order to vacate its premises by holding that the publisher of the National Herald has not provided any instances to support the serious allegations of malafide leveled against the ruling dispensation.
It had said AJL will have to vacate the ITO premises within two weeks after which eviction proceedings under the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorized Occupants) Act, 1971, would be initiated. The Centre had ended its 56-year-old lease and asked the AJL to vacate the premises, saying that no printing or publishing activity was going on. Government’s action came after the complaint filed by main petitioner and BJP leader Subramanian Swamy pointing out series of violations.
“Considering the factual nature, legal complexities and voluminous issues raised in the writ petition, it was indeed appropriate that the single judge ought to have issued formal notice and asked the respondent to place their say formally by way of an counter/reply affidavit rather taking documents across the bar and then proceedings to in limine dismiss the writ petition,” the appeal, filed through Priyansha Indra Sharma, said.
“In doing so, the single judge has displayed an unwarranted haste, uncalled for in the facts and circumstances of the present case,” it added. In its order, the single judge had said that AJL has been “hijacked” by Young Indian (YI), in which Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi are shareholders.
The Centre and Land and Development Office (L&DO) had said in their order that no press has been functioning in the premises for at least the past 10 years and it was being used only for commercial purposes in violation of the lease deed.
In its plea, AJL has also said the digital versions of English newspaper National Herald, Hindi’s Navjivan and Urdu’s Qaumi Awaz have commenced from 2016-17. The weekly newspaper ‘National Herald on Sunday’ resumed on September 24 last year and the place of publication was the ITO premises, AJL had said, adding that the Hindi weekly newspaper Sunday Navjivan was also being published since October this year from the same premises.