IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) MONDAY, THE FIRST DAY OF DECEMBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE VILAS V. AFZULPURKAR WRIT PETITION Nos:1749 of 2001 and 5566 of 2002 Writ Petition No.1749 of 2001:- Between: “Andhra Legal Decisions”, a partnership firm, represented by its Partner Sri Wasim Ahmed, S/o Sri Hasin Ahmed, aged about 37 years, R/o Hyderabad. ..... PETITIONER AND 1. Union of India, rep. by its Secretary, Ministry of Post & Telegraphs, New Delhi. 2. Chief Post Master General, Post & Telegraph, Andhra Pradesh, Abids, Hyderabad. 3. The Superintendent of Post Office, South East Zone, Hyderabad. .....RESPONDENTS Petition under Article 226 of the constitution of India praying that in the circumstances stated in the Affidavit filed herein the High Court will be pleased to issue a writ, order or direction, particularly one in the nature of Writ of Mandamus declaring the action of the respondent in not granting or renewing registration under Section 9 of Indian Post Office Act, 1898 t the petitioner’s Journals, namely, ALD, ALD (Criminal) and AILD on the ground the Law reports are no newspapers as illegal and further direct the third respondent accord the registration and consequential concessions to the same. Counsel for the Petitioner: MR.M.V.DURGA PRASAD Counsel for the Respondents: MR.A.RAJASEKHARA REDDY Writ Petition No: 5566 of 2002 Between: Andhra Pradesh Law Publishers, a Proprietary concern, rep. by its proprietrix Smt.K.Saraswathi ..... PETITIONER AND 1. Union of India, rep. by its Secretary, Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs, New Delhi. 2. Chief Post Master General, Post and Telegraphs, Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. 3. The Superintendent of Post Offices, South East Zone, Hyderabad. .....RESPONDENTS Petition under Article 226 of the constitution of India praying that in the circumstances stated in the Affidavit filed herein the High Court will be pleased to issue an appropriate order, direction or a Writ particularly one in the nature of a Writ of Mandamus declaring that the action of the respondents in not permitting the postal concessional rates for the dispatch of the (1) Andhra Pradesh Law Journal (Weekly) (2) Legislative Supplement to the Andhra Pradesh Law Journal (Monthly) (3) and Andhra Pradesh Law Journal Criminal (Monthly) published by the petitioners on the ground that the Law Reports are not News Papers is arbitrary and illegal and further direct the third respondent to permit the dispatch of the said three law journals to be dispatched at postal concessional rates treating them as news papers. Counsel for the Petitioner: MR.M.V.DURGA PRASAD Counsel for the Respondents: Mr.V.V.P.Rao The Court made the following: THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE VILAS V.AFZULPURKAR Writ Petition Nos.1749 of 2001 and 5566 of 2002 COMMON ORDER: W.P.No.1749 of 2001 is filed by Andhra Legal Decisions, publisher of law reports, and W.P.No.5566 of 2002 is filed by Andhra Pradesh Law Publishers, another publisher of law reports, seeking Mandamus against the respondent-postal authorities that they are entitled to concessional tariff/postage over dispatch of their publications to the subscribers on par with newspapers, as per the norms of the Posts and Telegraphs Department. Similar such issue came up for consideration before this Court with reference to another such publisher i.e., Law Animated World, and similar claim was upheld and the writ petition was allowed in the matter of Balamani v. Senior Superintendent of Post Offices, Hyderabad City Division[1]. Similar other publisher viz., Andhra Law Times, also sought similar relief, which was granted by this Court in W.P.No.1271 of 2001 on 27.08.2008. Since the petitioners’ case in these writ petitions falls within the same parameters covered by the aforesaid judgments, following the law laid down in the decisions referred to above, these writ petitions are allowed as prayed for, but no order as to costs. ____________________ Vilas V.Afzulpurkar, J Dt.01.12.2008. VGB [1] 2008 (4) ALT 232