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Bombay High Court
GINWALA,JAMDAR
All India Reporter - Appellant
Versus
State of Maharashtra - Respondent
Decided On : 04/22/1983
WORKING JOURNALISTS ACT - NEWSPAPER - LAW REPORTS - NOT NEWSPAPERS - ESTABLISHMENT PUBLISHING LAW REPORTS - NOT NEWSPAPER ESTABLISHMENT - WORKING JOURNALISTS ACT NOT APPLICABLE.
Fact of the Case:
The petitioner, All India Reporter Ltd., a public limited company, publishes law reports and other legal periodicals. The law reports are verbatim reproductions of judgments delivered by various High Courts and the Supreme Court of India. The petitioner's establishment was not registered as a newspaper under the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867, until 1957, when the Act was amended to require registration of newspapers. The petitioner's periodicals are registered as newspapers under Section 9 of the Indian Post Office Act, 1898, and are transmitted by post as 'Registered Post'. The Working Journalists (Conditions of Service and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1955 (Working Journalists Act) was enacted to regulate the conditions of service of working journalists employed in newspaper establishments. The Act was amended in 1974 to make its provisions applicable to other persons employed in newspaper establishments. In 1979, the Act was further amended to provide for the constitution of a Tribunal to fix or revise the rates of wages in respect of working journalists and non-journalist employees. A Tribunal known as 'Palekar Tribunal' was constituted under the Act in 1979. The Tribunal gave its Award in 1980, and the Government of India accepted and published the Award in 1980 and 1981. The petitioner was not served with any individual notice before the Palekar Tribunal was constituted, and the petitioner did not send a reply to the questionnaire issued by the Tribunal or give evidence before the Tribunal. In 1982, the Deputy Labour Commissioner, Nagpur, addressed communications to the petitioner asking the company to file its written say in the matter of non-implementation of the Palekar Award. The petitioner filed its reply in October 1981, contending that the petitioner company is not a newspaper establishment and the publications published by the company are not newspapers and hence Palekar Award is not applicable to the petitioner company. However, nearly a year after the reply was filed, the Deputy Labour Commissioner addressed another communication to the petitioner informing him that the long-standing issue of applicability of the Working Journalists Act and the consequent recommendations of the Palekar Tribunal to the establishment of the petitioner was examined at appropriate level and requesting him to implement the recommendations of Palekar Tribunal immediately. The petitioner filed a petition challenging the applicability of the Working Journalists Act to its establishment.
Finding of the Court:
The court held that the law reports published by the petitioner are not newspapers within the meaning of Section 2(b) of the Working Journalists Act, and the Working Journalists Act is not applicable to the establishment of the petitioner company and its employees.
Issues: Whether the law reports published by the petitioner are newspapers within the meaning of Section 2(b) of the Working Journalists Act.
Ratio Decidendi: The court held that the law reports published by the petitioner are not newspapers within the meaning of Section 2(b) of the Working Journalists Act because they do not contain public news or comments on public news. The court noted that the definition of 'newspaper' in Section 2(b) of the Working Journalists Act is similar to the definitions of 'newspaper' in other statutes, such as the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867, the Parliamentary Proceedings (Protection of Publication) Act, 1956, the Delivery of Books and Newspaper Act, 1956, and the Newspaper (Price and Page) Act, 1956. The court also noted that the definition of 'newspaper' in the Working Journalists Act does not include law reports. The court further noted that the law reports published by the petitioner are not intended for the general public, but rather for lawyers and other legal professionals. The court also noted that the law reports are published after the decisions have been made, and therefore the news is no longer fresh.
Final Decision: The court allowed the petition and quashed the letter-cum-order dated 18th November, 1982, which had directed the petitioner to implement the recommendations of the Palekar Tribunal.
JAMDAR, J.:- The petitioner All India Reporter Ltd. which is a Public Limited Company incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956, is a leading law publisher in India. It publishes commentaries on various statutes, Manuals, Digests and the following law Reports:
(1) All India Reporter.
(2) Criminal Law Journal.
(3) Labour and Industrial Cases.
(4) Taxation Law Reports.
(5) Allahabad Law Journal.
(6) U.P. Law Tribune.
2. The law reports published by the petitioner company are ad verbatim reproduction of the judgments delivered by various High Courts and also the supreme Court of India. The judgments are point-noted and the head-notes are prepared showing the important questions of law adjudicated upon by the concerned judgments. The law reports are published periodically in 12 parts every year, except the Allahabad Law Journal, which is published in 24 parts, and at the end of the year common Index of the whole volume is prepared and supplied to each customer subscribing the law reports. The law reports usually contain two parts, viz., (i) Journal Section; and (2) Judgments. The Journal Section mainly consists of Articles on various legal topics and reviews of law books. It also consists of reproduction of various enactments, rules and notifications published therein. The main part of the law reports, however, consists of judgments of various High Courts and Supreme Court. From the statement filed by the petitioner during the course of hearing, it appears that out of 4,22,412 pages of the All India Reporter published during the years from 1922 to 1982, only 6790 (which comes to 1.63 per cent) were utilized for Journal Section, while the remaining 4,15.622 pages were utilised for reproduction of judgments.
3. The petitioner company was established in 1922, but the law reports published by the petitioner were not registered as Newspapers under the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867, till 1957 presumably because till the aforesaid enactment was amended by Act No. 55 of 1955 with effect from 1-7-1957 and Chapter V-A, which deals with registration of newspapers, was inserted, there was no provision in the Act which required registration. The All India Reporter and the Criminal Law Journal were registered under the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867, as amended by Act. No. 55 of 1915 in 1957 and other periodicals were so registered as and when they were acquired by the petitioner company. The petitioner company has, however, written letters (Annexure-K, pages 92 to 97 of the petition) on 4th November 1982 to the Registrar of Newspapers of India. New Delhi, for cancelling the registration of all the law reports published by the petitioner. The periodicals (i.e. Law Journals published by the petitioner), however, are registered as newspapers under Section 9 of the Indian Post Office Act, 1898, and are transmitted by post as 'Registered Post' as contemplated by Rule 30 of the Indian Post Offices Rules, 1933.
4. The Working Journalists (Conditions of Service and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1955 (hereinafter referred to as the Working Journalists Act) enacted for the purpose of regulating certain conditions of service of Working Journalists employed in the newspaper establishment, came into force with effect from 20th December 1955. Section 9 of the said enactment prescribes procedure for fixing and revising rates of wages in respect of Working Journalists. The Act was amended by the Amending Act No. 60 of 1974 and the provisions of the said enactment were made applicable to other persons employed in the newspaper establishment. Section 13-C, which was inserted by the said Amending Act, made provision for constituting a Wage Board for the purpose of fixing or revising the rates of wages in respect of non-journalist newspaper employees. Sections 9 and 13-C of the Working Journalists Act were further amended by Act No. 6 of 1979 dated 19-3-1979, and Sections 13-AA and 13-DD which were inserted by the said amending Act, made
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