Right to change Place of publication is not prohibited under the Act.

In this Writ Petition, under Article 226 of the Constitution, the petitioner asks this Court:

(i) to forbid respondents 1 to 3 from granting to respondents, 4, 5 and/or 6 for Indian Express and Sunday Standard. Bangalore, any newsprint or newsprint quota, the said papers being new newspapers added to the existing chain of Indian Express Newspapers;

(ii) to forbid respondents4 and 5, their servants and agents and any of their subsidiary Companies from diverting, using or otherwise appropriating for Indian Express and/or Sunday Standard, Bangalore the newsprint allotted to Indian Express or Sunday Standard published from any other centre or to any other newspaper owned or controlled by respondents 4 or 5; and

(iii) to direct respondents 1 to 3 to prevent any such diversion, use or appropriation, by issuing a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate Writ, Order or direction.

The petitioner is a Private Limited Company incorporated under the Companies Act. It has its registered office in Bangalore. It is the proprietor of the English Daily ‘Deccan Herald’ and the Kannada Daily ‘Prajavani’. Boths these papers, are published from Bangalore.

The fourth-respondent company is a subsidiary of the fifth respondent. All the shares of the fourth respondent-company are owned by the fifth respondent-company. The fifth respondent has also two other subsidiary companies, carrying on business as newspaper publishers, namely, Express Newspapers Limited, New Delhi and Andhra Parabha Limited, Vijayawada, all the shares of both being owned by the fifth respondent. Between them and their subsidiaries, respondents 4 and 5 are the proprietors of a chain of newspapers published from several centres in India. In this chain are included the Indian Express English daily and the Sunday Standard, which is its Sunday edition. Till 10th June, 1965, these papers were published from six entires, viz. Madras, Chittoor, Madurai, Vijayawada, Bombay and Delhi. The others in this chain are Dinamani, Andhra Prabha, Loksatta, Financial Express, Screen, etc.

The bulk of the newsprint consumed in India by all newspapers is imported. The National Newsprint and Paper Mills Ltd. (Nepa Mills), situated at Nepanagar, Madhya Pradesh, also produces some newsprint. Newsprint indigenously manufactured as well as imported is a controlled commodity, as is also White Printing Paper used by newspapers, and the distribution and use thereof is regulated by the Government of India, in exercise of their powers under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955. The Central Government has promulgated an order entitled “Newsprint Control Order, 1962,” under the said Act. Every year, the Government of India announces its Import Policy for newsprint through an authorised publication, known in common parlance as the Red Book, and also through Gazette Notifications. The Policy for the year 1965-66 was published in the Gazette of India by Public Notice No. 28-ITC (PN) 65, dated 21st April, 1965. Clause 3(5) of that Order requires that in issuing an Authorisation for consumption or use of newsprint, the Controller shall have regard to the principles laid down in the Import Control policy announced by the Central Government. Apart from what is allotted to newspapers by the Government of India, newsprint or White Printing Paper cannot be secured otherwise. The entitlement of individual newspapers for newsprint is determined by the Registrar of Newspapers for India (respondent 2 herein), mainly on the following basis, i.e., (i) page area and average number of pages per publishing day in 1957; (ii) regularity of publication during 1964; and (iii) average circulation during April, 1961-March, 1962. The ‘policy’ declares that it will not be possible to allocate any quota of newsprint to newspaper chains, groups and multiple units for publication of new periodicals and newspapers. In the case of new newspapers, the ‘policy’ provides that they will be allowed an initial quota to develop and build up a