Eenadu Misinterprets Delhi High Court's Orders to ABC in Sakshi Circulation Row

Yet again, Eenadu spitted its venom against Sakshi group. The Eenadu that often aims to defame the AP state government, CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on a daily basis is at it again. Known as the postbory of Yellow journalism, Eenadu has brazenly twisted the Delhi High Court order and published a libelous news report that is full of lies. Whilst the Delhi High Court's order is applicable to all the news dailies in the Telugu states, Eenadu in its report wrongly attributed that the order is only applicable for Sakshi.

Going into details, the bone of contention is AP state government’s decision to provide a financial assistance of Rs. 200 per month to village and ward volunteers, as well as to secretariats to purchase a largely-circulated newspaper. The government did not specify any particular newspaper to purchase. Volunteers were encouraged to choose any newspaper with extensive circulation. The government has also allocated the budget for the same.

Contesting the same, the Ushodaya Enterprises Pvt Ltd (Eenadu) had moved the High Court seeking to revoke the AP government’s order. In a separate petition, the Ushodaya has also asked the court to direct the ABC (Audit Bureau’s Certification) to exclude the numbers from Sakshi’s Circulation Figures if in case the volunteers had purchased the Sakshi daily. This is not all. The Ushodaya also sought the court to direct the ABC to revise the Sakshi's circulation numbers for the previous period. Ushodaya director I Venkat has filed the petition in the court.

In addition to this, the Ushodaya sought the court to stop the Government GOs related to this issue and also further sought the court to pass interim orders restricting the ABC on Sakshi's circulation figures for 2002 July-December period and then after. The Chief Justice bench that investigated the petition heard the arguments of both the parties - Ushodaya and the AP state government. The CJ bench has quashed the supplementary pleas filed by the Ushodaya after hearing both the arguments.

With this, the Eenadu has moved the Supreme Court over the same issue. On the High Court orders, it has filed two Special Leave Petitions. On April 17 of last year, the Apex Court, under the leadership of Justice PS Narasimha, heard it. The court ordered for the transfer of the cases filed in the Andhra Pradesh High Court to the Delhi High Court. As per the Supreme Court's directions, the Delhi High Court has been hearing the arguments in the case since July 2023 and the notices were served to all respondents. 

In the latest development, the Delhi High Court on Thursday (14 March, 2024) heard Ushodaya's petition. While no advocate from the ABC (Audit Bureau's Certification) attended the hearing. Acting Chief Justice (ACJ) Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmohan Preetam Singh Arora have passed orders to submit the latest circulation details of Sakshi daily to the court in a sealed envelope. The next hearing in the matter has been posted to April 25, 2024. The court in its orders clearly directed to the ABC to withhold the circulation details of all the Telugu dailies. Yet, Eenadu with malicious interest published a news report misinterpreting the Delhi High Court's orders to the ABC. The Yellow media twisted the court's orders and only highlighted the point that Sakshi's circulation figures were told to hold, whereas the Court ordered to hold the circulation figures of all the Telugu dailies.

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