Road cleared for DB Corp in Ranchi

The latest order by the Delhi High Court allows DB Corp to circulate the Ranchi edition with a dateline of Ranchi

The Delhi High Court's latest order for DB Corp has come like a breather. The order now allows the publisher of the No. 2 daily, Dainik Bhaskar, to circulate the newspaper with a dedicated dateline of Ranchi, which was earlier circulated in the state capital with a dateline of Jamshedpur.

Sanjay Aggarwal, co-owner of the title Dainik Bhaskar, filed a petition at the office of the district magistrate, Ranchi against the expansion of the publication in the state capital, saying that the planned launch did not have his approval and any decision on the new editions would require mutual consent.

Aggarwal was granted a stay order by the single bench of Judge Muralidharan of Delhi High Court. The order, which came on August 27, restricted the company from publishing the newspaper from Ranchi. Later, the matter was sent to a two member bench of Court No. 2. In today's judgment, the bench acted in favour of DB Corp and allowed it to publish the newspaper from Ranchi.

During the injunction period, the print line of the Ranchi edition of Dainik Bhaskar, which was launched about a fortnight ago, read 'Printed from Ranchi' and 'Published from Jamshedpur' instead of 'Printed and Published from Ranchi'.

This is the 12th state the group has its footprints in, including Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Chandigarh, Punjab, Maharashtra, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi. The Ranchi edition is the 49th edition of the group.

The group also plans to expand in the state with the launch of Jamshedpur and Dhandbad editions, which will be followed by the launch of the newspaper in Bihar in early 2011.

Early this year, DB Corp had announced the proposed launches of new editions of Dainik Bhaskar in Jammu, Jharkhand and Bihar as part of the company's growth and expansion plans.

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