By ShriKrishna Prasad, Advocate
New Delhi, January 07. In the Dainik Hindustan Advertisement Scam, the Respondent No.02, Mr. Mantoo Sharma, in his counter-affidavit to the Supreme Court in the Special Leave Petition (Criminal) No.1603 of 2013 (filed by the petitioner, Shobhna Bhartia,the Chairperson of M/S The Hindustan Times Limited, M/S H.T.Media Limited, M/S Hindustan Media Ventures Limited), has tried his best to explain the main reason behind this economic offence on large scale for a decade , committed by the petitioner and her editors and publisher.
The content of Mr. Mantoo Sharma’s counter-affidavit in this matter,submitted to the Supreme Court(New Delhi) is given in the orginal form here so that the world internet readers could know the depth of the economic offence of this powerful corporate print media house of India.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF ADVERTISEMENT POLICY OF UNION GOVERNMENT IN INDIA
The Union Government through the Directorate of Advertising & Visual Publicity(D.A.V.P),Information& Broadcasting Ministry,Government of India,New Delhi,approves "the Govt. Advertisement Rates" and releases "the Union Govt. advertisements" to newspapers in bulkevery year after fulfilling the certain conditionssuch as
(1) The Newspaper must have ''the Certificate of Registration'' and ''The Registration Number',
(2) The Evidence of uninterrupted publication of the newspaper for 36 months(three years) regularly,
(3) The Certificate of Audit Bureau of Circulation regarding the circulation of the newspaper,etc.
(4) There must be a minimum of seventy five thousand of circulation of the newspaper.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF ADVERTISEMENT POLICY OF BIHAR GOVERNMENT
The Bihar govt. also through the Information & Public Relation Department (IPRD), Patna, approves the "Govt. Advertisement Rate" and releases the "State Government Advertisements" in bulk to newspaperseither directly or through different district stategovt.offices every year in all districts of Bihar.
The Information & Public RelationDepartment(IPRD),Patna,Bihar enlists the eligible newspapers for the "State Govt. Advertisements" onthefollowing terms and conditions such as
(1) the Newspaper must have "The Certificate of Registration" from the office of the Press Registrar,New Delhi,
(2) the number of sold Hindi daily newspaper must be a minimum of 45 thousand per day,
(3) the newspaper must have obtained " the Approved D.A.V.P Rate".etc.
DAINIK HINDUSTAN NOT ENTITLED TO PUBLISH ADVERTISEMENTS FROM AUGUST ,03, 2001 TO JUNE 30, 2011
Under the terms and conditions of the Advertisement Policies of the Union Govt. and the Bihar Govt. as well, the new Bhagalpur and Munger publications/editions of Dainik Hindustan were not entitled to get and publish the Government Advertisements from the Union Government and theBihar Government as well as both publications/editions had completely failed tocomply with the mandatory provisions of the Press & Registration of Books Act,1867 and theRegistration of Newspapers(Central) Rules, 1956 and the statutory rules and regulations of Advertisement Policies.The statutory provisions ofAdvertisement Policies include obtaining "the Certificateof Registration" & "the Registration Number" from thePress Registrar,New Delhi.
EVEN AFTER REGISTRATION ,BOTH PUBLICATIONS WERE NOT ENTITLED TO GET AND PUBLISH GOVERNMENT ADVERTISEMENTS FOR THREE YEARS
Under the terms and conditions of the Advertisement Policies of .D.A.V.P(New Delhi) and I.P.R.D (Patna,Bihar),the new Bhagalpur and Munger publications/editions of Dainik Hindustan were not entitled to get the govt advertisements from the union govt. and the state govt. for three years from August ,03,2001 to July 31,2004,even though they would have obtained 'the Certificates of Registration'' and ''the Registration Numbers'' because there must have been an uninterrupted publication of the daily Hindi newspaper forthree years regularly even after obtaining the "Certificate of Registration" and the "Registration Number" from the office of the Press Registrar,New Delhi as per terms and conditions of the Advertisment Policy of the D.A.V.P,New Delhi.
Thus , when the company completes three yours publication regularly even after obtaining “the Certificate of Registration” & “the Registration Number”, it will ,then, be eligible only to apply for “the DAVP Advertisement Rate” and “DAVP Advertisements.”
It is also crystal clear that the Bihar Govt will consider enlisting any Hindi newspaper for the release of the "State Govt. Advertisements" if that newspaper gets the "D.A.V.P Approved Advertisement Rate" from the DAVP ,New Delhi as per one of the three main termsandconditions of the I.P.R.D,Patna,Bihar .
MAIN REASON BEHIND THE ECONOMIC OFFENCE
To compensate the possible gross loss of income in the head of the publication of the advertisements of the union government and the Bihar government in the wake of a new publication/edition, the publisher/owner as well as the editors fraudulently induced the officials of the D.A.V.P(New Delhi) and I.P.R.D(Patna,Bihar) to deliver the advertisements of the union government and the Bihar govt. respectively to the illegal and unauthorised Bhagalpur and Munger publications of Dainik Hindustan forwrongful gain from August, 03 ,2001 to June 30,2011 by wrongly presenting the Bhagalpur and Munger publications/editions as "Registered Newspapers" before the Govts. in Delhi and Patna. The Bhagalpur and Munger publications of Dainik Hindustan went in circulation/publication among readers and advertisers without the "Certificates of Registration'' and ''Registration Numbers''.But to cheat the officials ofD.A.V.P(New Delhi),I.P.R.D(Patna,Bihar) and private advertisers,too,the publishr/owner and the editors of Dainik Hindustan of Bhagalpur and Munger editions continued printing on the "Print-line" on the last page of the newspaper the "Registration No.44348/1986" from August 03,2001 to June 30,2011, thus falsely and dishonestly presenting the newspaper to be "a lawfully registered newspaper".In reality, the truth is that the "printed Registration No.44348/1986" has been officially allocated to the Patna publication/edition of Dainik Hindustan from the office of the Press Registrar,New Delhi in 1986,some 15 years ago before the start of the new printing and publications of Bhagalpur and Munger editions of Dainik Hindustan in the year 2001 last.The documentary evidences of forgery and cheatings in the printing of the Patna Publication Registration No.44348/1986 on the "Print-line of theBhagalpur and Munger publications/editons of Dainik Hindustan by such a powerful media house is a serious economic offence which has never been heard in thepast hundred years in the world. "Thus,the company plundered the government exchequer upto about two hundred crores during the period.
The content of Mr. Mantoo Sharma’s counter-affidavit in this matter,submitted to the Supreme Court(New Delhi) is given in the orginal form here so that the world internet readers could know the depth of the economic offence of this powerful corporate print media house of India.
ONE MORE IMPORTANT REASON FOR CHEATINGS AND FORGERY OF THE MEDIA HOUSE
The DAVP(New Delhi), the sole agency of the union government for the approval of "the Govt. Advertisement Rate" and the "release" of "all central gov. advertisements (Advts)" to newspapers, has made it "compulsory" that the minimum circulation of the daily newspaper must be 75,000(Seventy five thousand ) per day while the I.P.R.D(Patna,Bihar), the sole agencyof the Bihar govt. for approval of "the Govt. Advertisement Rate" and the "release" of the "State Govt. Advertisements" to newspapers, has made it "compulsory" in its terms and conditions that the minimum circulation of the newspaper must be 20,000(Twenty thousand) per day from 1981 to 2008, and 45,000(forty five thousand) per day from 2008 to till now.And under the terms and conditions in respect of the minimum circulation ,Dainik Hindustan could/ can/would never fulfil the terms and conditions in all times to come as in each district of Bihar,the circulation of Dainik Hindustan does not cross ten thousand except some exceptions .
Under the circumstances, the company gets ''the Certificate of Registration'' and '' the Registration NO.'' of Dainik Hindustan for "one place of publication", but the company prints, publishes and circulates "38 different publications/editions" for "all thirty eight districts" of Bihar with same title 'Dainik Hindustan',same editor, same publisher,same printer, same registration No., same telephone No.,same local editor,but each districtwise publication/ edition of Dainik Hindustan in Biharis totally "different" in news as has been "certified"by "the Enquiry-Report" of the Munger District Magistrate which was sent to the Hon'ble Patna High Court in connection with Criminal Misc.No.2951 of 2012 ( Shobhana Bharatiya Vs State of Bihar and others) in this case.
But when the company prints and publishes 38 different newspapers with totally different news contents in each districtwise edition/publication under one registration No.,the Publisher/owner presents the circulation figure taking together of figures of all the different editions/publications of the Hindi daily “Hindustan” ,thus fulfilling the terms and conditions of the allotment of the union and the state govt. advertisements. Thereby they committed such a fraud to obtain the government advertisements. As it is the powerful media house,none in the govt. machinery from district to Delhi dares even to probe the allegations of economic offences ,what to speak of conducting any deep enquiry and taking any legal actions against the economic offenders.Such a big economic offence has come to light only due to the action of the judiciary at Munger.
By ShriKrishna Prasad, Advocate Mobile No- 09470400813
