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In a relief to Gandhi’s in the National Herald case, Supreme Court stayed Delhi High Court order of February 28 which ordered vacation of 'Herald House' in Delhi that has National Herald office. A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi has also issued notice to Land and Development Office on an appeal of Associated Journal (AJL) against the High Court order
AJL is owned by Young India (YI), in which Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi are majority shareholders. On December 21 last year, the Delhi High Court’s single bench had dismissed the petition filed by the AJL, challenging the Centre’s decision to cancel its lease and vacate the Herald House.
The Centre, in its eviction order passed on October 30 last year, had mentioned the violation of lease conditions by the AJL and had said that the Herald House’s 56-year-old lease to the AJL had ended. The publisher had then approached the High Court on November 12 last year against the eviction order of the Union Urban Development Ministry. In its petition, they stated that the Central government’s decision to cancel the lease is “politically motivated". In High Court, A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi also issued notice to the Centre's Land and Development Office (L&DO) on the plea of AJL, publisher of the National Herald.
Earlier AJL had moved the apex court against the high court order dismissing its plea to restrain the Centre from taking any "coercive steps" to vacate its premises at Herald House in ITO area in the heart of the national capital.The high court had rejected a request by Associated Journals to stop the government from taking any "coercive steps" to vacate.During supreme court hearing, the government told the court that the "corporate veil" has to be seen in the case.
On December 21, 2018, the Delhi High Court asked Associated Journals Limited to vacate the premises within two weeks, after which eviction proceedings would be initiated.
BJP leader Subramanian Swamy had alleged that Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi - the Congress president - set up a company to buy debts worth Rs. 90 crore owed by Associated Journals, which publishes three newspapers including National Herald, founded by Jawaharlal Nehru - Rahul Gandhi's great-grandfather - before he became India's first prime minister.
In 2008, Associated Journals had shut down over its debts. The BJP alleges that the Gandhis used Congress party funds to pay off its debts even though the publisher has real estate assets worth thousands of crores.
On February 28, the division bench of the Delhi High Court had upheld that eviction order passed under the Public Premises Act by Centre and the Land and Development Office(LDO) against AJL stating that no press has been functioning in the premises for at least the past 10 years and that it was being used only for commercial purposes in violation of the lease deed. The order was passed in the backdrop of majority of shares of AJL being transferred to the company Young India (YI), in which Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi are shareholders.Earlier, a single bench of the High Court had refused to interfere with the eviction order.The bench took note of the fact that AJL has been taken over by Young Indian Company for all practical purposes.
In the 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, 2017, and the place of publication was the ITO premises, AJL said, adding that the Hindi weekly newspaper Sunday Navjivan was being published since October last year from the same premises.
In reference of Jaswant Sugar Mills Ltd. Meerut vs.Lakshmichand and Ors., AIR 1963 SC 677, court formulated the following criteria to ascertain whether a decision or an act is judicial function or not, in the following manner
1) it is in substance a determination upon investigation of a question by the application of objective standards to facts found in the light of pre-existing legal rule;
2) it declares rights or imposes upon parties obligations affecting their civil rights; and
3) that the investigation is subject to certain procedural attributes contemplating an opportunity of presenting its case to a party, ascertainment of facts by means of evidence if a dispute be on questions of fact, and if the dispute be on question of law on the presentation of legal argument, and a decision resulting in the disposal of the matter on findings based upon those questions of law and fact.
The act of numbering a petition is purely administrative.
Thus The power of judicial function cannot be delegated to the Registry, SC could not sustain the order, rejecting the numbering/registration of the Petition, by the Madras High Court Registry.
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