Delhi high court quashes 47 year old eviction notice against The Indian Express

On Friday, the Delhi High Court quashed a 47-year-old eviction notice from the Central government aimed at The Indian Express, seeking to evict the newspaper from its Bahadur Shah Zafar Road office. The Court found the eviction efforts were designed to stifle press freedom and cut off the newspaper's income.

Justice Prathiba M Singh observed that the eviction notice had never been served to The Indian Express, calling the government's actions "malicious" and an attempt to "muzzle" the press. The Court also criticized the government’s conduct, noting that the notice was discovered by the newspaper through a Times of India article rather than direct communication.

The Court ruled that the eviction notices were arbitrary and mala fide, highlighting that the government's reissued notices violated the Supreme Court's 1986 judgment, which had already struck down previous eviction efforts as unconstitutional. The Court ordered the government to pay ₹5 lakh in costs to The Indian Express due to the protracted litigation.

The land for the Express Building was initially allotted to the newspaper’s founder, Ram Nath Goenka, by the Nehru government in the 1950s. In 1980, the Central government issued a re-entry and demolition notice, purportedly in retaliation for the newspaper’s critical reporting on the government during the emergency period imposed by Indira Gandhi. The matter was taken to the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of The Indian Express in 1986.

Despite this, the government continued its efforts to evict the newspaper, leading to further legal battles. The government's claim for dues started at ₹17,684 crores but was later reduced to ₹765 crores, deemed "far-fetched and unreasonable" by the High Court. The Court determined that the newspaper owed only around ₹64 lakhs for conversion charges and additional ground rent.

The Union of India was represented by Central Government Standing Counsel Kirtiman Singh and other advocates, while The Indian Express was represented by Senior Advocates Salman Khurshid and Sandeep Sethi, among others.

[Read Judgment]