Delhi High Court has ordered status quo be maintained on the Herald House, effectively restraining the government from taking over the premises situated on the capital’s  Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg  which is the publishing headquarters of the Congress mouthpiece National Herald.

The court passed the order while hearing a plea by the Associated Journal Limited, publishers of the newspaper,  challenging the eviction Orders passed by Land & Development officer last week.  It has fixed November 22 as the next date of hearing. The Union government has decided to take over the house citing violations of the specified conditions on which the land was allocated. The government had last week dispatched a legal order to the allottee regarding the cancellation of the specified allocation reportedly after a;; due processes were gone through. An inspection team from the land development office reportedly found unauthorised construction in the building. The team has also found similar violations in other premises on this stretch and issued notices to the official allottees for their response. “The National Herald case will be an example for other violators. There is an ongoing court case for another building on the same stretch,” the official  was quoted by the media. .The Congress party had reacted to the takeover notice by calling it a politically motivated and biased order”.

–India Legal