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New Delhi : The Delhi High Court on December 21, 218, dismissed the petition filed by Associated Journals Limited (AJL) and observed that the order passed by the Government justifies its re-entry on the premises at 5-A, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi. It has further ordered that there is no impediment in the way of the Government to invoke the provisions of Public Premises (PP) Act to seek eviction of petitioners, in case they do not voluntarily vacate the premises and hand over its vacant possession to the Government within a period of two weeks by January 3, 2019. By this decision, the Court has vindicated the stand of the Government on this issue.
It may be noted that 0.3365 acre of Land was allotted to AJL at 5-A, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi, in 1962-63 at concessional rate of Rs 1,25,000 per acre for construction of a five-story building (in addition to basement) for purpose of press on the ground floor and offices on other floors.
However, complaints were received regarding misuse of the land. It was found by the inspecting team of the Ministry on April 9, 2018, that no printing press was functioning at any floor of the premises and no paper stock was found anywhere. In earlier inspection, also, the basement where Press machine should have been, was found vacant. Further, it was also found that almost all shares of AJL were transferred to ‘Young Indian Ltd’ having same address as that of AJL without any permission of the Ministry. As per a report of Income Tax Department, in Young Indian Ltd., majority of shares (76%) are held by the Gandhi family and the rest by Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernandes, according to a PIB release.
It was also observed that instead of using the land given to AJL for Press purpose, they are earning a huge sum of money by renting out almost entire building except one floor which has negated the purpose for which the land was originally allotted.
Since all these violations came to the notice of the Government, Show Cause Notices were issued to AJL on June 18, 2018, and again on September 24, 2018. As AJL could not give any satisfactory reply to these violations, order for re-entry of the premises was issued by the Ministry on October 30, 2018. Against this order, the AJL had gone to the Delhi High Court.
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