16-05-2025
HC orders Doon administration to de-seal 3 bookshops after 45 days
Dehradun: In a relief to three Dehradun-based bookshops that were sealed in March,
Uttarakhand high court
has directed the district authorities to de-seal these and asked under what provision of law action was taken.
When the counsel for the state said "in public interest", the court on Wednesday directed the state to file a counter affidavit within four weeks.
Four bookshops were sealed after FIRs were lodged against them on March 29 over several alleged irregularities, including overpricing, GST evasion, selling books from fake publications with forged international standard book numbers (ISBNs), and not providing proper bills to customers.
The crackdown by the local administration came after complaints filed by parents of schoolchildren. The district administration lodged a First Information Report (FIR) against shopkeeper Ashwani Mohan of Asian Book Depot, maintaining that the ISBN was not found in some books, and online verification of the Chemistry Lab Manual for Class 9 and Basudha for Class 5 could not be done.
Similar FIRs were lodged against Sudhir Kr Jain of National Book House and Vinay Kr Aggarwal of Brothers Pustak Bhandar, as the ISBN number on some books could not be verified at Jain's shop, while the ISCE board books' ISBN number was not recorded at Aggarwal's shop.
