NEW DELHI, Feb 28:
The Delhi High Court today dismissed the plea of AJL, publisher of Congress mouthpiece National Herald, challenging the Centre’s order to vacate its premises and said there has been “misuse” of lease conditions.
The High Court held that the entire transaction of transferring shares of Associated Journals Ltd (AJL) to Young Indian (YI) company, in which Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi are majority shareholders, was a “clandestine and surreptitious transfer of the lucrative interest in the premises” to YI.
A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao upheld the single judge’s December order which had dismissed AJL’s plea against the Centre’s eviction order and had directed it to vacate in two weeks the Herald House in the ITO area in the heart of the capital.
“If all these factors are taken note of and a decision is taken by the respondents (Centre) to say that the dominant purpose for which the lease was granted has been violated and there has been misuse of the conditions of the lease, in the absence of mala fides or ulterior motive having been established, the writ court has rightly refused to interfere into the matter.
“We also see no reason to make any indulgence into a reasonable order passed by the writ court in the facts and circumstances of the present case,” the bench said.
It said no ground is made out for making any indulgence into the matter and “we dismiss the appeal”.
AJL had appealed against the single judge’s December 21, 2018 order, after which eviction proceedings under the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971, were be initiated. (PTI)
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