Flyers can’t be inserted in HT, rules HC

Delhi HC restrains 5 NOIDA-based persons from circulating their ad material by inserting them in HT, reports Satya Prakash.

Now nobody can distribute any kind of advertisement supplements printed and published somewhere else with Hindustan Times.

In an important order, the Delhi High Court has restrained five such NOIDA-based persons from circulating their advertisement material by inserting them in Hindustan Times. This illegal practice was going on for quite some time in Delhi and NCR.

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Acting on a plaint filed the HT Media Limited, Justice B.D. Ahmad restrained them from directly or indirectly inserting advertising material or other printed material in the copies of Hindustan Times while it is being circulated to customers.

The court issued summons to Rajeev Rana, Prashant Yadav, Sumit Singh Negi, Bishwakarma Prasad and M/s RDX Advertising, who were printing and publishing an advertising supplement — ‘BUSINESS GUIDE’ and illegally circulating it by inserting it in Hindustan Times. The interim HT counsel, Sai Krishna Rajgopal, submitted that the newspaper was suffering huge revenue loss due to this illegal activity.

“This is perhaps for the first time that an Indian court has passed such an order,” Rajgopal said, adding, “though there are two such orders by UK courts.”

In its suit, HT Media Limited had complained to the court that the said persons had been wrongly representing to the public as authorised booking agents of Hindustan Times and thereby procuring a large number of advertisements that they published under the head ‘BUSINESS GUIDE’. The defendants were making huge money out of Hindustan Times’ goodwill and circulation without any authority to do so.

HT Media Limited Vice President (Legal) Dinesh Mittal said that HT is determined to ensure that this illegal practice of doing inserts and supplements into newspapers is stopped. Terming it as “important for the healthy growth of the newspaper industry”, Mittal said, “This is the first step in this direction and we will go all out to stop this illegal practice.”