The stay came as a sigh of relief for the Indian National Congress, which virtually controls AJL by way of transfer of shares of AJL to Young Indian (YI).
The Supreme Court stayed eviction proceedings against Associated Journals Limited (AJL) on Friday, the holding company that runs the newspaper National Herald. An eviction notice was issued to it by the Land and Development Office (L&DO) for violation of lease conditions.
The stay came as a sigh of relief for the Indian National Congress, which virtually controls AJL by way of transfer of shares of AJL to Young Indian (YI). YI is controlled by Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, his mother Sonia Gandhi among other Congress leaders. The L&DO claimed several grounds of misuse of lease by alleging that the change of ownership amounted to a sale which could not be permitted as per the lease deed dated January 10, 1967.
However, AJL contended that the change of shareholding pattern did not affect the lease and hence it cannot be termed misuse. AJL lost its case before the Delhi High Court in February 2019. The appeal against the HC order came up for the first time before a bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna.
After senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi presented arguments for ALJ, the Bench asked, "Does a transfer in shareholding amount to transfer of lease?" It asked the Centre whether the issue has been covered in past decisions made by the Supreme Court.
Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta agreed the issue may require consideration, but built a case on how a loan of Rs 90 crore, due from AJL to Indian National Congress, was assigned to YI on payment of Rs 50 lakh. "If you agree there is a point of law to be decided, why should we hear you at this stage. We may as well issue a notice," said the Bench. The Court maintained that the core dispute was whether a change in shareholding pattern would amount to transfer of lease.
Meanwhile, the Court directed stay of L&DO's eviction notice of December 27, 2018 seeking eviction by January 3, 2019, and the HC order that confirmed the same.
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