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IN THE HIGH COURT OF ORISSA AT CUTTACK
G.C. Das, R.L. Narasimham, JJ.
P.S.V. IYER
Versus
COMMISSIONER OF SALES TAX, ORISSA
S.J.C. No. 26 of 1958
Decided On: Decided On : 06-07-1960
SALES TAX - NEWSPAPER - DEFINITION - CUTTACK LAW TIMES - WHETHER A NEWSPAPER - HELD, NO.
Fact of the Case:
The question before the court was whether Cuttack Law Times, a non-official monthly law journal that reported verbatim important decisions of the Orissa High Court, the Orissa Board of Revenue, and the Supreme Court, was a 'newspaper' and therefore entitled to exemption from sales tax under the Orissa Sales Tax Act.
Finding of the Court:
The court held that Cuttack Law Times was not a newspaper and was therefore not entitled to exemption from sales tax.
Issues: Whether Cuttack Law Times is a 'newspaper' and therefore entitled to exemption under the provisions of the Orissa Sales Tax Act.
Ratio Decidendi: The court held that the essential prerequisite of a periodical, in order to make it a 'newspaper', is that it must contain mainly public news or comments on public news. Books containing authoritative reports for future reference can, by no strain of language, be said to contain 'news' so as to become 'newspapers'.
Final Decision: The court answered the question referred by the Sales Tax Tribunal in the negative, holding that Cuttack Law Times was not a newspaper and was therefore not entitled to exemption from sales tax.
JUDGMENT
NARASIMHAM, C.J. - The sole question of law referred to this Court by the Member, Sales Tax Tribunal, Orissa, under section 24(1) of the Orissa Sales Tax Act, is as follows:-
"Whether, in the circumstances and on the facts on record, the publication entitled 'Cuttack Law Times' is a 'newspaper' and therefore entitled to exemption under the provisions of the Orissa Sales Tax Act".
2. Cuttack Law Times is a non-official monthly law journal which reports, verbatim, important decisions of the Orissa High Court, the Orissa Board of Revenue and also the Supreme Court, with the usual headnotes, like any other law publication. In addition, it publishes short notes of cases of the High Court which are not reported in full. It also contains reprints of some of the Orissa Acts, and rules and statutory orders and notifications issued under those Acts. Besides, there is a journal section in which comments on current legal topics are printed. There are also the usual advertisements as are found in any periodical. The said publication has been registered as a "newspaper" for the purpose of section 9 of the Indian Post Office Act, 1898, and also for the purpose of the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867.
3. The question for decision is whether Cuttack Law Times is liable to pay sales tax.
4. The power of the Orissa Legislature to levy sales tax is derived from Entry 54 of List II of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution which reads as follows :-
"54. Taxes on the sale or purchase of goods other than newspapers, subject to Entry 92A of List I."
(Entry 92A is not material.)
Entry 92 of List I of the said Schedule confers on Union Parliament alone the power to tax the sale or purchase of newspapers as will be clear from the following :-
"92. Tax on the sale or purchase of newspapers and on advertisements published therein."
In conformity with the aforesaid legislative power conferred by the Constitution, the Government of Orissa by Notification No. 11689-F dated the 8th August, 1951, exempted sales and purchases of newspapers from liability to pay sales tax under the Orissa Sales Tax Act.
5. The Constitution does not contain any definition of the expression "newspapers", but Entry 39 of List III of the Seventh Schedule gives an indication of the meaning of that expression. That entry is as follows :-
"39. Newspapers, books and printing presses."
When the framers of the Constitution thus placed the two expression "newspapers" and "books" in one entry, it is reasonable to infer that they intended to convey two different meanings to the two expressions.
6. The meaning of the expression "newspapers" as given in the Oxford Dictionary is as follows :-
"A printed, now usually daily or weekly, publication containing news, commonly with the addition of advertisements and other matters of interest".
Thus, the main content of a newspaper must be "news" though there may also be advertisements and other matters of interest in it. In the same dictionary, while pointing out that the word "news" is the plural of medieval Latin "novum" which means a new thing, the following definition has been given :
"Tidings; the report or account of recent events or occurrences brought or coming to one as new information. New occurrences as a subject of report or talk."
Thus the essence of "news" is its "novelty", that is, the close proximity between the time of the event or occurrence and the time when it is reported or talked about.
7. The primary purpose of a book, however, is not necessarily to publish news about recent events or occurrences but to deal with matters which may have a permanent interest for the purpose of reference in future. The fundamental distinction between a "newspaper" and a book of reference, has been well brought out by Hood, J., in Ex-parte Stilwell ([1923] 29 V.L.R. 415, at p. 418) in the following terms (quoted at page 485 of "Words and Phrases Judicially Defined", Vol. 3, by Rowland Burrows) :-
"I feel no hesitation in saying t
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