The Supreme Court has told the Bhagwant Mann government in Punjab to allow the Punjab Kesari group to resume its printing press in Ludhiana. This interim order will stay in place until the Punjab and Haryana High Court delivers its verdict on the group’s petition against the government’s actions.

The media group has accused the AAP government of targeted harassment. A hotel run by the media group was shut recently on the orders of the Pollution Board. The printing press was also shut down on the orders of Punjab Pollution Control Board. 

The Punjab government had earlier responded to the group’s allegations, calling it a “vendetta narrative”. They claimed that their actions were based on concrete violations detected by statutory authorities, highlighting excise violations at a hotel owned by the group in Jalandhar, including the storage of 800 liquor bottles at unapproved locations, and environmental violations, such as the discharge of untreated effluents into sewer lines.

According to LiveLaw, a bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul Pancholi passed the interim order on Tuesday after senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi made an oral mention on behalf of the newspaper. Rohatgi claimed coercive actions were initiated after a critical report against the management, including cutting off the electricity, notices by the Pollution Control Board against the press, shutting down of the hotels run by the newspaper owners, and FIRs.

However, senior advocate Shadan Farasat, Additional Advocate General of Punjab, submitted that all steps were taken in accordance with the law. “The matter can certainly wait. The actions are exactly as per the book in terms of the Pollution Control law. They are making something else out of it. Whatever action was needed, it has already been taken; we are not going to take further action,” he submitted, according to LiveLaw.

Farasat said that only one printing unit has been directed to be closed due to a pollution issue, and it is incorrect to say that the entire newspaper has been shut. 

“Don’t close the newspaper part. Hotel or other commercial establishment, one can understand, can be closed for a few days. But allow the newspaper,” CJI Kant said, according to LiveLaw. 

LiveLaw quoted the bench’s observation: “Without prejudice to the rights of both sides, and without expressing any opinion on the merits of the case, it is directed that the printing press of Punjab Kesari newspaper shall continue to function uninterruptedly. However, with respect to the other commercial establishments, be it the hotel etc, status quo shall be maintained. This interim arrangement is made till the pronouncement of the judgment of the High Court and one week more to enable the aggrieved party to approach the appropriate forum.”

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