National Herald Case: What is the legal battle around Herald house?
India Today
The Herald house is one of the sizeable assets which was controlled by Associated Journals Limited (AJL), whose shares and assets were transferred to Young Indian (YI). Herald House was the registered office of the AJL. Take a deep dive into the issues surrounding it.
Herald house, a dusty white building on Delhi's former " Fleet Street"- Bahadurshah Zafar Marg - is a stone's throw from the ITO in the heart of Delhi. It is also one of the sizeable assets controlled by Associated Journals Limited (AJL), whose shares and assets were transferred to Young Indian (YI).
At present, the Herald house, a 0.3 acre, five-storey building, is a part of the assets under control of the Associated Journals Limited and has a Passport Seva Kendra operating from two of its floors.
A "commercial" gift and photocopier shop- Akash gift shop, also remains operational on its ground floor. At the same time, the digital notice board and poster outside the building states that a weekly newspaper is being published by AJL from the building, though the security guard claims he has no knowledge of any office in the building.
The building itself has been the subject of litigation, with the land and development office of the DDA initiating proceedings against AJL for eviction under the public premises act in 2018.
According to the order passed by the DDA L&DO, a "breach notice" was sent in October 2016, and subsequently inspections of the property were carried out.
The L&DO decided to cancel the lease granted in 1967, after it was found that the ground floor as well as the first floor was let out to Passport Office, whereas second and third floors were let out to Tata Consultancy Agency and fourth floor was being used by petitioner/lessee-AJL.
In addition, a commercial gift shop and photocopier was operating out of the ground floor of the premises. Show cause notice for eviction was issued in September 2018, and on 30 October 2018, the L&DO passed orders to take over the premises.
