New Delhi: Indian Express premises sealed

New Delhi, Nov 18: The premises of Indian Express at the Qutab Institutional Area in South Delhi were today sealed by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi(MCD) for allegedly operating illegally from the building allotted to a trust formed by former Union Minister Vasant Sathe.

The MCD officials sealed two buildings in the morning.

After the partition of the Goenka empire, the owners of the Express Group of newspapers, the offices of the Indian Express and Financial Express, were shifted to two buildings in Qutab Institutional area from the Express Building at Bahadurshah Zafar Marg in central Delhi a few years ago.

The MCD authorities had sealed many premises in the area, including those of the Canara Bank Relief and welfare society, Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan trust floated by famed sarod player Amjad Ali Khan, Namgyal trust of the fomer ruler of Ladakh and Habitat India, since November 15.

The High Court has granted two months time to the companies on rent to vacate the premises.

On November 16, the Delhi High Court refused to grant a stay on sealing of the premises of Express group newspapers and had asked the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), the land owning agency, to file a status report on the lease deed and land use.

A bench of acting Chief Justice Vijender Jain and Justice Rekha Sharma asked the DDA to produce the records of the original allottees, Societies or Trusts, of the land at the Qutab Institutional area at a concessional rate for carrying out voluntary works or social services.

Counsel Rajive Bansal, appearing for the DDA, said the half-acre premise was allotted to Chatrapati Shivaji Foundation, formed by Mr Sathe for Rs 1.5 lakh.

After a survey, the DDA found that the lease deeds of these premises had been violated and asked the MCD to seal the buildings, said Mr Bansal.

The Foundation had rented out the premises for commercial purposes to the newspaper group and there were lots of unauthorised constructions on the land, said Mr Bansal.

Senior Counsel Arun Jaitley, appearing for the Foundation had argued that the DDA had given permission to the foundation to rent out 25 per cent of the premises and the newspaper would take steps to reduce its use to the permitted limit.

Mr Jaitley said the DDA and Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) did not have the authority to seal the premises, at best they could force the society/NGOs/trusts to adhere to the land use according to law.

Mr Bansal submitted that all these buildings allotted to 26 trusts and societies had been rented out to various MNCs at an exorbitant price.

UNI

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