UNI office sealed in Delhi; staffers allege manhandling by the police

Delhi Police allegedly manhandled UNI staff while enforcing a court order to vacate the agency's office, now sealed.

The Delhi Police along with paramilitary forces on Friday (March 20, 2026) allegedly dragged at least 50 journalists out of the United News of India’s (UNI) Rafi Marg office following a court order over a land dispute.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Sachin Sharma told The Hindu that the Delhi Police along with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel visited the premises of the UNI office to provide security to the Land and Development Office after the High Court gave an order to vacate the premises in favour of the latter. “As per the HC order, we were there to provide security to the L&DO officers and asked all UNI staffers to vacate the premises,” said Mr. Sharma.

The case pertained to an order issued by the Land and Development Office under the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry, which had asked the news agency to vacate the premises.

The High Court on Friday had upheld the cancellation of the land allotment made to UNI at Rafi Marg, observing that the agency failed to construct a building on the plot for over four decades and effectively “squatted on valuable public land”.

The High Court had found no illegality in the March 29, 2023 cancellation letter issued by the L&DO, which had revoked UNI’s allotment of land at Rafi Marg. UNI had moved the court against the cancellation letter in 2023. It noted that under the original allotment terms dating back to 1979, UNI was required to complete the construction of a composite office complex within two years of taking possession. However, no construction activity was undertaken and even preliminary steps towards the project were not initiated.

The order records that the land was originally intended to be jointly used by UNI, the Press Club of India and the Press Association, but the primary allottee failed to fulfil its obligations.