AJL 'clandestinely' transferred majority shares to Young Indian: Centre

New Delhi  :  The Central government on Monday told the Delhi High Court that Associated Journals Ltd (AJL), which publishes National Herald newspaper, has "clandestinely" transferred its majority shares to Young Indian in which Congress President Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi are shareholders.

The court was hearing the AJL appeal challenging the December 21 order of a single judge dismissing its plea against the Urban Development Ministry's October 30 direction that AJL's 56-year-old lease on Herald House was over and that it should vacate.

The single judge in its order on December 21 noted that by transfer of AJL's 99 per cent shares to Young Indian company, the beneficial interest of AJL's property worth Rs 413.40 crore stands clandestinely transferred to Young Indian company.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told a division bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V. Kameswar Rao that the publication of National Herald newspaper was stopped in 2008 and in 2010-11 AJL clandestinely transferred the property to Young Indian.

Mehta told the court that AJL had violated the lease agreement and revived the National Herald only after the Centre sent a notice for inspection of the property in September 2016.

He also told the court that a weekly newspaper was published from Noida, not Herald House

Defending AJL, Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi apprised the court that various media houses print their newspaper from some other place and placed record of some major newspapers which are printing their newspaper from other places.

He also told the court that the digital version of the newspaper was started on November 14, 2016.

The court listed the matter for further arguments on February 1.

The single-judge bench had observed that the AJL had not disclosed the volume of the daily's publication and the extent of its circulation, both in print and online, across the country.

The AJL in its appeal said the volume of the publication was neither relevant nor was the company subjected to any query by the single-judge to this effect during the course of oral arguments.

"The High Court has plainly erred in completely ignoring these facts in the impugned order (December 21)," the appeal said.

The publication of the weekly 'National Herald on Sunday' was resumed on September 24, 2017 and it is published from the Herald House. On October 14, the AJL also resumed its weekly Hindi newspaper.

AJL said that the single-judge bench had displayed unwarranted haste.