CPM's Tripura daily moves HC against registration scrapping

Agartala: Daily 'Desher Katha', mouthpiece of the Tripura unit of the CPI(M), has filed a writ petition in the Tripura High Court challenging the decision of the Registrar of Newspapers for India (RNI) to cancel the newspaper's registration, the Bengali daily's editor Samir Paul said on Sunday. In a letter on October 1, the RNI said that the publication of the daily was being suspended. It cited "unauthorised change of ownership" as the reason behind the step.

"We filed the writ petition in the high court on Saturday. We are waiting for the petition to be admitted for hearing in the high court. We challenged the decision of the RNI to withdraw our registration," Paul told reporters. District Magistrate of West Tripura Sandeep Namdeo Mahatme had said the newspaper was found to have violated several sections of the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867. A complaint against the newspaper was registered in August this year, he had said. A preliminary investigation conducted by the DM found that the complaint had substance, following which a hearing was initiated.