The court affirmed substantial compliance over minor procedural deviations in eligibility requirements for associations seeking nomination to the Press Council, rejecting arbitrary objections from a Scrutiny Committee.

JUDGMENT

DEVENDRA KUMAR UPADHYAYA, C.J. CHALLENGE

1. This intra-Court appeal takes exception to the judgment and order dated 22.11.2024 passed by the learned Single Judge whereby W.P.(C.) No.

16202/2024 filed by the respondent No.1 – petitioner (the Press Club, Mumbai) has been allowed and the recommendation of the Scrutiny Committee dated 10.09.2024 so far as it relates to respondent No.1 whereby it was not included in the list of notified “associations of persons” for the purposes of re-constitution of the 15^th Press Council of India (the appellant), has been quashed.

FACTS

2. Press Council of India is a statutory body incorporated under Section 4 of the Press Council Act, 1978 (hereinafter referred to as the “Act”) and is a body corporate having perpetual succession and a common seal.

3. Section 5 of the Act provides for composition of the Council which consists of a Chairman and twenty eight other Members. Out of twenty eight other Members of the Council, thirteen are nominated from amongst the working Journalists of whom six are Editors of newspapers and seven are working Journalists other than Editors. Six persons are to be nominated from amongst persons who own or carry on business of management of newspapers. One Member is nominated amongst persons who manage news agencies and three persons are those who have special knowledge or practical experience in education, science, law and literature and culture, of whom one is nominated by University Grants Commission, one by the Bar Council of India and one by the Sahitya Academy. Rest five Members are Members of Parliament of whom three are nominated by the Speaker from amongst the Members of the Lok Sabha and two are nominated by the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha from amongst its Members. For the purposes of nomination of thirteen Members from amongst working Journalists and also for nominating six persons from amongst persons who own or carrying on business of management of newspapers and also for nominating one Member from persons who manage news agencies, the retiring Chairperson of the previous Council has to invite panels of names comprising twice the number of Members to be nominated, from “associations of persons” of the working Journalists, those who own or carry on the business of management of newspapers and also those who manage news agencies. All persons are nominated as Members of the Council by the Council except in the case of the First Council and on nomination of persons as Members, the Central Government notifies names of persons nominated by the Council. So far as the present case is concerned, we are concerned with nominations of working Journalists in terms of (3)(a) of the Act.

4. Section 5 of the Act is extracted herein below:

“5. Composition of the Council.—

(1) The Council shall consist of a Chairman and twenty-eight other members.

(2) The Chairman shall be a person nominated by a Committee consisting of the Chairman of the Council of States (Rajya Sabha), the Speaker of the House of the People (Lok Sabha) and a person elected by the members of the Council under sub-section (6) and the nomination so made shall take effect from the date on which it is notified by the Central Government in the Official Gazette.

(3) Of the other members—

(a) thirteen shall be nominated in accordance with such procedure as may be prescribed from among the working journalists, of whom six shall be editors of newspapers and the remaining seven shall be working journalists other than editors; so, however, that the number of such editors and working journalists other than editors in relation to newspapers published in Indian languages shall be not less than three and four respectively;

(b) six shall be nominated in accordance with such procedure as may be prescribed from among persons who own or carry on the business of management of newspapers, so, however, that there shall be two representatives from each of the categories of big newspapers, medium newspapers and small newspaper