PANASAM AKSHARA | Delhi HC |July 28, 2022
A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad was dealing with an appeal filed by aggrieved employee of the foreign news agency, said the headquarters are in france and was constituted by Act of Parliament of France was not a state under Indian law. Asserting that writ is issued for performance of public duties the court observed the complaint by employee for harassment has come up by internal functioning of news agency and the complaint against them is not in the course of performance of its duty as a news agency. Justice Subramonium Prasad said, "The complaint against Respondent No:2 that is a foreign entity is not amendable to writ jurisdiction as there exist a employer and employee relationship which cannot be termed as public function". The Court has imposed a fine of Rs.50000 on the appellant for wasting precious judicial time and said that it is a frivolous petition and appeal. Earlier a single judge bench dismissed the appellant's writ petition saying that it is not maintainable and the newspaper agency engaged in dissemination of news cannot be termed as performing public function. The single judge said that. 'Regard must be had to fact that expression public function and public duty shall be understood by overviewing the functions performed by state in its sovereign capacity, and the court observed that the contract of service between petitioner and the second respondent is not imbued with any statutory effects'. The Delhi High Court in the present case said that foreign entity is not amendable to its writ jurisdiction under the Constitution and dismissed an appeal against single judge order of refusing to entertain allegations of racial discrimination and harassment by a foreign news agency.