No eviction from ‘National Herald’ offices till Nov 22

New Delhi, November 15

The publisher of the National Herald newspaper, which was ordered by the Centre to vacate its premises here by November 15, got a last- minute breather on Thursday with the Delhi High Court directing status quo till November 22.

Associated Journals Ltd (AJL), the publisher of the newspaper, approached the High Court on November 12 challenging the October 30 order of the Urban Development Ministry, ending its 56-year-old lease and asking it to vacate the premises at the press enclave in ITO.

The AJL alleged that the proceedings by the ministry were being initiated for the purposes of “scuttling the voices of dissent” and the voice of the largest Opposition party in the country, a reference to the Congress.

Without naming the BJP,  the AJL alleged that the “order issued under pressure and directives from the ruling party at the Centre is vitiated by malafides, bias and had oblique political motives”.

The Land and Development Office had ended the lease entered into with AJL on August 2, 1962 and made perpetual in 1967. — PTI