8 July 2003

BHASKAR OWNERS LOSE NEWSPAPER TITLE
IN FAMILY DISPUTE

From Our Delhi Bureau

NEW DELHI: The present owners of the country's one of the largest circulated Hindi daily "Dainik Bhaskar" have lost the decade-old family dispute over the newspaper title with the Supreme Court restoring it back to the firm of the daily's founder late Dwarka Prasad Agarwal.

Disposing off two appeals of 1996, the Supreme Court on Monday held that the title belongs not to the founder's son Ramesh Agarwal and his children running the newspaper but to the petitioner partnership firm which is now owned by the founder's second wife Kishori Devi and daughter from her Hemlata Agarwal.

On Tuesday, Hemlata addressed a Press conference here, claiming the right over various editions of the newspaper published from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh. She pointed out that the Apex Court has struck down the High Court order of 1992 by which her step-brother Ramesh had usurped the newspaper in the name of Writers and Publishers Limited.

"Writers and Publishers can no longer print and publish or authorise any individual/company/firm etc. to print and/or publish newspaper Dainik Bhaskar from any place in India," she said, hoping that the RNI (Registrar of Newspapers for India) and concerned authorities will take suitable and prompt action to enforce the Supreme Court's judgment.

The present owners' comments were not available. They are left with no choice but to change name of the newspaper. They seem to have premonition of the Court verdict as they registered the new title of "Divya Bhaskar" with the RNI while launching yet another edition in June, this time in June. Hemlata's lawyers, however, claimed the title of "Divya Bhaskar" is also under dispute before a magistrate in Ahmedabad.

It was, however, contended by sources on behalf of the present owners that the ownership of "Dainik Bhaskar" had vested at the time of start of the dispute in five companies, including the firm Dwarka Prasad Agarwal and Brothers, and that Ramesh Agarwal had 25 per cent share in the firm and his deceased uncle Bishambar Dayal also had share in that firm.

While Hemlata claimed all properties of the newspaper that has flourished tremendously under the present owners asserting that they had bloomed from investments her late father had made, her lawyers had nothing to show ownership of the properties that are now spread over seven states and belong to the company of her brother Ramesh Agarwal.

The newspaper ownership had run into the family dispute back in 1991 when arcimony reached to the extent of the founder Dwarka Prasad Agarwal, popularly called by all as "Bhaisahab", being beaten up by Ramesh Agarwal and his children and since then the two sides have been fighting court battle to claim ownership of the newspaper title.

The daily "Dainik Bhaskar" was started in 1958 from Bhopal and it was registered in the name of Dwarka Prasad Agarwal with the Registrar of Newspapers for India (RNI). The ownership of the title was subsequently transferred to the partnership firm of Dwarka Prasad Agarwal and Brothers in 1972. The firm partners were Dwarka Prasad Agrawal, his two brothers and son Ramesh Chandra Agarwal.

The family dispute triggered in late eighties when Dwarka Prasad Agarwal sought to divide his newspaper empire between children from his two wives and it went to the extent of the title being usurped by Ramesh Agarwal by getting it trasferred in the name of Writers and Publishers Limited.

Quashing the transfer of the ownership of the title to this company on the orders of the Madhya Pradesh High Court passed in 1992, the Apex Court restored the ownership to the firm, Dwarka Prasad Agarwal and Brothers, holding that "the parties shall be relegated to the same position in which they were immediately prior to the passing of the Order dated 26.9.1992 (by High Court).

The Supreme Courd also ordered that "statutory authorities and courts including the civil courts are directed to act accordingly." The fallout of the judgment is that publication of the newspaper "Dainik Bhaskar" by the present owners from any part of the country becomes illegal unless it has sanction of the original owner firm which now belongs to the founder's widow Kishoridevi and daughter Hemlata Agarwal.

It may be mentioned here that Dwarka Prasad Agarwal was publishing "Dainik Bhaskar" from Bhopal and other cities of Madhya Pradesh as well as from his hometown Jhansi but the daily that was seen as a Madhya Prdesh daily really took off with a shoot-up in circulation from the multiple editions published from several centres in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh. So far the group had remained confined only to bring out editions in Hindi while an English daily (National Mail) started from Bhopal was subsequently folded up. For the first time, the group has ventured into a Gujarati daily from Ahmedabad from last month and that too with a circulation of four lakh plus from day one.

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