Civil Appeal No 8440 of 1983
From the Judgment and Order dated 22483 of the High Court of Bombay in Writ Petition No 238882
MK Ramamurthy and AK Sanghi for the Appellant
Dr YS Chitale PH Parekh RK Dhillon Ms Sunita Sharma and Dr D Chandrachud for the Respondents
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by VENKATARAMIAH J
The question which arises for consideration in this case is whether the law reports namely All India Reporter Criminal Law Journal Labour and Industrial Cases Taxation Law Reports Allahabad Law Journal and UP Law Tribune published by the 1st respondent All India Reporter Limited are newspapers as defined in the Working Journalists and Other Newspaper Employees Conditions of Service and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1955 Act No 45 of 1955 hereinafter referred to as the Act  and whether the employees of the 1st respondent engaged in the production or publication of the said law reports are entitled to the benefits conferred upon the employees of newspaper establishments by the Act
The Act was enacted on 20th December 1955 with the object of regulating certain conditions of service of working journalists and other employees employed in the newspaper establishments
The expression newspaper is defined by section 2b of the Act as follows  Newspaper means any printed periodical work containing public news or comments on public news and includes such other class of printed periodical work as may from time to time be notified in this behalf by the Central Government in the Official Gazette 779 A newspaper employee is defined by section 2c of the Act as any working journalist and includes any other person employed to do any work in or in relation to any newspaper establishment
Newspaper establishment is defined by section 2d of the Act as an establishment under the control of any person or body of persons whether incorporated or not for the production or publication of one or more newspapers or for conducting any news agency or syndicate
The expression working journalist is defined by section 2f of the Act as a person whose principal avocation is that of a journalist and who is employed as such either whole time or part time in or in relation to one or more newspaper establishments and includes an editor a leader writer news editor sub editor feature writer copy tester reporter correspondent cartoonist news photographer and proof reader but does not include any such person who is employed mainly in a managerial or administrative capacity or being employed in a supervisory capacity performs either by the nature of the duties attached to his office or by reason of the powers vested in him functions mainly of a managerial nature
A non journalist newspaper employee means any person employed to do any work in or in relation to any newspaper establishment but does not include any such person who is a working journalist or is employed mainly in a managerial or administrative capacity or being employed in a supervisory capacity performs either by the nature of the duties attached to his office or by reason of the powers vested in him functions mainly of a managerial nature as stated in section 2dd of the Act
Chapter II of the Act deals with certain conditions of service of the working journalists
Those provisions relate to the retrenchment payment of gratuity hours of work leave fixation or revision of wages etc
Chapter IIA of the Act deals with similar conditions of service of non journalist newspaper employees
Section 9 of the Act authorises the Central Government to appoint a Wage Board consisting of two persons representing employers in relation to newspaper establishments two persons representing working journalists and three independent persons one of whom shall be a person who is or has been a Judge of a High Court or of the Supreme Court and who shall be appointed by that Government as the Chairman thereof for the purpose of making recommendations with regard to fixation or revision of wages of working journalists
Similarly section 13C of the Act provides for the constitution of a Wage Board for the purpose of making recommendations regarding the fixation or revision of the rates of wages in respect of non journalist news 780 paper employees
Section 13AA which was inserted by Act 6 of 1979 provides for the constitution of a Tribunal for fixing or revising rates of wages in respect of working journalists where the Central Government is of opinion that the Board constituted under section 9 for the purpose of fixing or revising rates of wages in respect of working journalists under the Act has not been able to function effectively
That Tribunal has to consist of a Judge of the High Court or of the Supreme Court
Similarly section 13DD of the Act empowers the Central Government to constitute a Tribunal where it is of opinion that the Board constituted under section 13C of the Act has not been able to function effectively
Section 13AA and section 13DD of the Act came into force with effect from January 31 1979
In exercise of the powers conferred by section 13AA and section 13DD of the Act the Central Government constituted under two separate notifications two Tribunals on 921979 with Justice Palekar a former Judge of the Supreme Court as the member of each of the two Tribunals to make recommendations in respect of fixing or revising wages of working journalists as well as non working journalists
Justice Palekar made his recommendations on 1281980
In exercise of its powers under section 12 of the Act the Central Government accepted a part of the recommendations and made an order thereon on 26121980 and accepted the remaining part of the recommendations and made another order thereon on 2071981
The 1st respondent All India Reporter Limited was not served with any individual notice by the Tribunal before it passed its award
The 1st respondent also did not send a reply to the questionnaire issued by the Tribunal nor it gave any evidence before the Tribunal in respect of the matters referred to therein
However on 1571981 and 381981 the Deputy Labour Commissioner Nagpur wrote to the 1st respondent asking it to file its written statements in the matter of non implementation of the Palekar Award as the orders of the Central Government made under section 12 of the Act were popularly called
The first respondent submitted its reply in October 1981 inter alia contending that it was not running a newspaper establishment and publications published by the company were not the newspapers and as such the Palekar Award was not applicable to it
Again on 18th November 1982 the Deputy Labour Commissioner Nagpur wrote a letter to the Manager of the 1st respondent informing him that the 1st respondent was liable to implement the order of the Central Government made on the recommendations of the Palekar Tribunal in respect of its employees since the Ist respondent was a newspaper establishment
Immediately after the service of the said notice the Ist respon 781 dent filed a writ petition on the file of the High Court of Judicature at Bombay Nagpur Bench in Writ Petition No 2388 of 1982 questioning the validity of the notice served on it by the Deputy Labour Commissioner Nagpur calling upon it to implement the orders of the Central Government on the basis of the award of the Palekar Tribunal
Initially the State of Maharashtra the Commissioner of Labour and the Deputy Labour Commissioner Nagpur had been impleaded as respondents
Thereafter during the pendency of the Writ Petition the Indian Federation of Working Journalists and the All India Reporter Karamachari Sangh were impleaded as respondents in the writ petition
It was urged before the High Court on behalf of the Ist respondent All India Reporter Limited that the law reports publised by it were not newspapers as defined in the Act and therefore the order made by the Central Government on the basis of the recommendations of Justice Palekar were not applicable to its establishment
The High Court accepted the plea of the Ist respondent and declared that the law reports were not newspapers within the meaning of section 2b of the Act and that the demand made by the Deputy Labour Commissioner to comply with the order made by the Central Government on the basis of the recommendations of Justice Palekar was unsustainable by its judgment dated 22nd April 1983
Aggrieved by the decision of the High Court the appellants have filed this appeal by special leave
The Ist respondent All India Reporter Limited publishes in addition to the law reports referred in the first paragraph of this judgment several other books commentaries digests and manuals
But we are concerned in this case with the narrow question whether the six law reports which are being published by the Ist respondent are newspapers within the meaning of the Act and whether the employees engaged in their production or distribution are entitled to the benefit of the orders made by the Central Government on the basis of the recommendations of the Palekar Tribunal
The definition of the expression newspaper has already been set out above
In order to be a newspaper a work must be a i printed work ii a periodical and iii should contain public news or comments on public news
Any other class of printed periodical work as may from time to time be notified in this behalf by the Central Government in the Official Gazette may also be a newspaper
There is no dispute in the present case that the law reports are printed works and that they are periodicals
The only question which remains to be 782 considered is whether they contain public news or comments on public news
Entry 39 of List III of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution reads thus Newspapers books and printing presses
 Newspapers and books are no doubt shown as separate items but the distinction between them sometimes becomes very thin or totally vanishes
In this connection it is necessary to reproduce a passage from the Report of the Royal Commission on the Press 1947 49 appointed by the British Government and presided over by Sir William David Ross
It reads thus The newspaper and periodical Press of Great Britain consists of over 4000 publications ranging from newspapers famous throughout the world to the journals of obscure societies
Its limits are ill defined for there is no definition of either newspaper  or periodical  which enables each to be infallibly distinguished from the other and from publications which are properly speaking neither
The term newspaper  is usually applied except so far as concerns the important class of trade newspapers to publications devoted mainly to recording current events and periodicals  to magazines reviews and journals which in so far as they are concerned with current events at all are concerned to comment rather than to report but newspapers merge into advertising sheets periodicals into books and pamphlets and both into one another   The expression news is not defined in the Act
Several definitions of the expression news collected from the different dictionaries and digests have been cited before us
It is enough if we refer to the meaning of the word news given in the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary for purposes of this case
It says that news means tidings new information of recent events new occurrences as a subject of report or talk
The law reports which are being published by the Ist respondent are reports of recent decisions of the Supreme Court of India and of the High Courts in India which are supplied to it by its agents appointed at New Delhi and other places where High Courts are situated
It cannot be disputed that these decisions are of public importance
Article 141 of the Constitution provides that the law declared by Supreme Court shall be binding on all courts within the territory of India
Even apart from Article 141 of the Constitution the decisions of the Supreme Court which is a court of record constitute a 783 source of law as they are the judicial precedents of the highest court of the land
They are binding on all the courts throughout India
Similarly the decisions of every High Court being judicial precedents are binding on all courts situated in the territory over which the High Court exercises jurisdiction
Those decisions also carry persuasive value before courts which are not situated within its territory
The decisions of the Supreme Court and of the High Courts are almost as important as statutes rules and regulations passed by the competent legislatures and other bodies since they affect the public generally
It is well known that the decisions of the superior courts while they settle the disputes between the parties to the proceedings in which they are given they are the sources of law in so far as all others are concerned
As soon as a decision is rendered the members of the public would be interested in knowing it
At any rate lawyers and others connected with courts and judicial proceedings who constitute a substantial section of the public are interested in knowing the contents and the effect of the decisions
The Ist respondent All India Reporter Limited and other publishers of law reports in the interests of their own business vie with each other to publish the judgments of the Supreme Court or of the High Courts as early as possible in their law reports which are published periodically either weekly fortnightly or monthly
They believe that faster the decisions are published in their reports larger will be the number of subscribers
Infact we have a law report which is published from Delhi which publishes the judgments rendered by the Supreme Court within a day or two
The contents of these law reports constitute news insofar as the subscribers and the readers of these reports are concerned
It is by reading these law reports they come to know of the latest legal position prevailing in the country on any question decided in the decisions reported in the said reports
Hence it is difficult to agree with the submission made on behalf of the Ist respondent that the law reports do not carry any news and that the public is not interested in them
We are of the view that any decision published in the law reports of the Ist respondent contain information about the recent events which have taken place in the Supreme Court or in the High Courts which are public bodies and these are matters in which the public is interested
We find it also difficult to agree with the submission made on behalf of the Ist respondent that since the law reports are going to be preserved by the lawyers as reference books after getting them rebound subsequently they should be treated as books
It may be that the decisions contained in these law reports may cease to be items of news after some time but when they are received by the subscribers they do possess the character of works containing news
784 Strong reliance was placed on behalf of the Ist respondent on the decision of the High Court of Orissa in PSV Iyer vs Commissioner of Sales Tax Orissa AIR 1960 Orissa 221 in which the question that arose for consideration was whether a law journal Cuttack Law Times which was a non official monthly journal containing the decisions of the Orissa High Court the Orissa Board of Revenue and also of the Supreme Court was a newspaper and if it was a newspaper whether it was competent for the Legislature of the State of Orissa to levy sales tax on the sale of the said journal
The said question arose in that form in view of the language of Entry 54 of List II of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution which read as follows 54
Taxes on the sale or purchase of goods other than newspapers subject to Entry 92 A of List I The language of Entry 92 of List I of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution which conferred on Parliament alone the power to tax sale or purchase of newspapers was in the following terms 92
Tax on the sale or purchase of newspapers and on advertisements published therein
 After referring to the definition of the expression newspaper  in the Press and Registration of Books Act 1867 the Indian Post Offices Act 1898 the Parliamentary Proceedings Protection of Publication Act 1956 the Delivery of Books and Newspapers Act 1956 the  etc
the High Court of Orissa held that the Cuttack Law Times was not a newspaper because according to it the necessary pre requisite of a periodical in order to make it a newspaper was that it should contain mainly publicnews or comments on public news and that books containing authoritative reports for future reference could by no means be said to contain news so as to become newspaper
Accordingly the High Court of Orissa held that the sale of Cuttack Law Times which according to it was not a newspaper could be taxed by the State Legislature under Entry 54 of List II of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India
We find it difficult to agree with the above decision since the High Court of Orissa omitted to take into consideration that information about recent decisions of courts of record could be news in which the public was interested
The fact that a law report could be used as a reference book at later stage was not sufficient to hold that the law report did not contain public news when it was received by the subscriber
785 The High Court of Madras declined to follow the above decision of the Orissa High Court in its decision in TV Ramnath and Another vs Union of India and Others 1975 Labour and Industrial Cases 488 in which the Madras Law Journal a law report published from Madras was held to be a newspaper and the establishment in which the said law report was being published was a newspaper establishment which attracted the provisions of that Act
We agree with the following observations made in the said decision by Ismail J as he then was Similarly the publications of the petitioner in the second writ petition can be said to contain public news  or comments on public news  since it contains reports of the judgments of the Courts as well as comments on such judgments
Even though the same may be primarily intended for that section of the public which is concerned with law and the administration of law in the present days nothing prevents any educated individual taking interest in such publications and the news themselves being of interest to such persons
Therefore I am clearly of the opinion that the expression public news  is of sufficiently wide amplitude to cover the publications of both the petitioners in question
 It is seen that the editor of the law report containing the above decision has appended an editorial comment on this stating that this decision is wrong and that the Orissa High Court s decision was right
Justice AN Grover who later became a Judge of the Supreme Court of India and the Chairman of the Press Council as a Judge of the Punjab  Haryana High Court held in LD Jain vs General Manager Government of India Press and Others ILR 1967 Punjab and Haryana 193 that the Gazette of India which was the official publication of all kinds of news and information was a newspaper within the meaning of section 2b of the Working Journalists Conditions of Service and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1955 and that it was not essential for a newspaper to conform strictly to the usual pattern of a daily or weekly or monthly newspaper or a magazine containing news which members of the public ordinarily read in order to get reports of recent events comments on them etc
In doing so he distinguished the decision of the Australian Court in Ex Parte Stillwell in which the Bradshaw s Guide was held to be a book of reference which lacked every element of what could be called a newspaper on which the Orissa High Court had relied
The Ist respondent cannot derive any assistance from the deci 786 sion of the High Court of Bombay in Commissoner of Sales Tax vs Ms Express Printing Press AIR 1983 Bombay 191 in which the Bombay High Court held that the two publications by name Jocker  and Jabara  which contained predictions or forecasts of lucky numbers were not newspapers since those publications had nothing to do with any recent event which had taken place
In the Annual Report of the Registrar of Newspapers for India 1957 there is an interesting discussion of certain specific cases in which the question whether the publications involved were newspapers or not
In the course of the said report it is obversed thus In this connection the Press Registrar scrutinised reports published in certain foreign countries regarding their own Press and it was noticed that in the catalogues prepared by them specialised newspapers such as the one under consideration were not excluded from the list of newspapers
Even technical journals such as medical periodicals journals related to sciences arts etc were included
A catalogue of Yugoslav newspapers and magazines for instance includes publications relating to the following subjects Political information economics law and states administration education philology natural sciences medicine agriculture technology geography ethnography history archives archaeology literature music applied art film chess photography tourism stamp collecting physical culture and sport humour and religion
In a catalogue of Russian papers for 1958 all the above categories of newspapers and periodicals have been included in addition to many others which deal exclusively with party affairs
 It is significant that the expression newspaper  as defined in the Act includes not merely public news  but also comments on public news 
Every law report contains the editorial note at the commencement of the decisions printed therein and also comments on some of the recent decisions
Law reports also contain newly enacts Acts Rules and Regulations book reviews and advertisements relating to law books handwriting and finger print experts etc
 speeches made at conferences in which the legal fraternity is interested etc
Though the 787 publication of these items by itself may not occupy a substantial part of a law report to make it a newspaper the publication of the recent judgments itself is sufficient to make a law report a newspaper which may after some time cease to be a newspaper and become a book of reference
The Act in question is a beneficent legislation which is enacted for the purpose of improving the conditions of service of the employees of the newspaper establishments and hence even if it is possible to have two opinions on the construction of the provisions of the Act the one which advances the object of the Act and is in favour of the employees for whose benefit the Act is passed has to be accepted
We are of the view that the law reports published by the Ist respondent are newspapers and the employees employed by the Ist respondent in their production or publication of the said law reports should be extended the benefit of the orders passed by the Central Government on the basis of the recommendations made by the Palekar Award
We accordingly allow the appeal set aside the judgment of the High Court and dismiss the writ petition filed by the Ist respondent before the High Court
There will however be no order as to costs
SL Appeal allowed


Summary:
HELD The Court was concerned with the narrow question whether the six law reports aforementioned being published by the 1st respondent were newspapers within the meaning of the Act and whether the employees engaged in their production or distribution were entitled to the benefit of the orders made by the Central Government on the basis of the Palekar Award
781F In order to be a newspaper a work must be i a printed work ii a periodical and iii should contain public news or comments on public news
Any other class of printed periodical work as may from time to time be notified in this behalf by the Central Government in the official Gazette may also be a newspaper
There was no dispute in this case that the law reports are printed works and that they are periodicals
The only question which remained to be considered was whether they contained public news or comments on public news Newspapers and 776 books are no doubt shown as separate items in Entry 39 of List III of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution but the distinction between them sometimes becomes very thin or totally vanishes
781G H782A B The law reports being published by the 1st respondent are reports of recent decisions of the Supreme Court of India and the High Courts in India which are supplied to it by its agents appointed at New Delhi and other places where the High Courts are situated
These decisions are of public importance
The law declared by the Supreme Court is binding on all the Courts in India as provided by Article 141 of the Constitution
The decisions of the Supreme Court a court of record constitute a source of law as they are judicial precedents of the highest court of the land
They are binding on all the courts throughout India
The decisions of every High Court being judicial precedents are binding on all the Courts situated in the territory under the jurisdiction of the High Court
The decisions of the Supreme Court and High Courts are almost as important as statutes rules and regulations passed by the competent legislatures and other bodies
The decisions of the superior courts while they settle the disputes between the parties to the proceedings are sources of law in so far as all others are concerned
As soon as a decision is rendered the members of the public would be interested in knowing it lawyers and others connected with the courts and judicial proceedings are interested in knowing the contents and effects of the decisions
The 1st respondent and other publishers of law reports in the interests of their own business vie with each other to publish the judgments of the Supreme Court or the High Courts as early as possible in their law reports published periodically weekly fortnightly or monthly
They believe the faster the decisions are published in their reports the larger will be the number of subscribers
The contents of these law reports constitute news in so far as the subscribers and readers of these reports are concerned
By reading these law reports they come to know of the latest legal position prevailing in the country on any question decided in the decisions reported in the said reports
Hence it was difficult to agree with the submission of the 1st respondent that the law reports did not carry any news and that the public was not interested in them
Any decision published in the law reports of the 1st respondent contains information about the recent events which have taken place in the Supreme Court or the High Courts which are public bodies and these are matters in which public is interested
The Court found it also difficult to agree with the submission of the 1st respondent that since the law reports are going to be preserved by the lawyers as reference books after getting them rebound subsequently they should be treated as books
The decisions contained in these law reports may 777 cease to be items of news after some time but when they are received by the subscribers they do possess the character of works containing news
782G H 783A H Strong reliance was placed by the 1st respondent on the decision of the High Court of Orissa in PSV Iyer vs Commissioner of Sales Tax Orissa AIR 1960 Orissa 221 but the Court found it difficult to agree with that decision since the High Court had omitted to take into consideration that information about recent decisions of the Courts of record could be news in which the public was interested
The fact that a law book could be used as a reference book at a later stage was not sufficient to hold that the law report did not contain public news when it was received by the subscriber
784A G H It is sufficient that the expression newspaper  as defined in the Act includes not merely public news  but also comments on public news 
Every law report contains the editorial note and also comments on some of the recent decisions
The law Reports also contain newly enacted Acts Rules and Regulations book reviews and advertisements relating to law books handwriting and finger print experts etc speeches made at conferences in which the legal fraternity is interested etc
Though the publication of these items by itself may not occupy a substantial part of a law report to make it a newspaper the publication of the recent judgments itself is sufficient to make a law report a newspaper which may after some time cease to be a newspaper and become a book of reference
786G H 787A B The Act is a beneficient legislation which is enacted for improving the conditions of service of the employees of the newspaper establishments and even if it is possible to have two opinions on the construction of the provisions of the Act the one which advances the object of the Act and is in favour of the employees for whose benefit the Act is passed has to be accepted
787B C The Law Reports published by the 1st respondent are newspapers and the employees employed by the 1st respondent in their production or publication should be extended the benefit of the orders passed by the Central Government on the basis of the recommendations made by the Palekar Award787C D The judgment of the High Court was set aside and the writ petition filed by the 1st respondent before the High Court was dismissed
787D 778 PSV Iyer vs Commissioner of Sales Tax Orissa AIR 1960 Orissa 221 TV Ramanath  Anr
vs Union of India  Ors
 1975 Labour and Industrial Cases 488 LD Jain vs General Manager Government of India Press and Others ILR 1967 Punjab and Haryana 193 Ex Parte Stillwell and Commissioner of Sales Tax vs Ms Express Printing Press AIR 1983 Bombay 191 referred to