IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) WEDNESDAY, THE TWENTY SEVENTH DAY OF AUGUST TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE V.ESWARAIAH WRIT PETITION No: 1271 of 2001 BETWEEN: Andhra Law Times, Rep. by its Publisher, L.D.Gogia, H.NO.16-11- 418/3, Balaji Sadan, Dilsukhnagar, Hyderabad-36. ... PETITIONER AND 1 The Senior Superintendent of Post Offices, Hyderabad South East Division, Hyderabad. 2 The Chief Post Master General, A.P. Circle, Hyderabad. 3 The Union of India, Rep. by its Secretary, Departments of Post, Dak Sadan, New Delhi. ...RESPONDENTS Petition under Article 226 of the constitution of India praying that in the circumstances stated in the Aﬃdavit ﬁled herein the High Court may be pleased to issue a Writ of Mandamus, or any other appropriate writ, order or direction, declaring the action of the Respondent NO.1 in canceling the licenses bearing Nos. 1) HSE No.633 for Andhra Law Times (Fortnightly), 2) HSE NO.722 for ALT (Criminal) 3) HSE NO.708 for Andhra Law Times (Revenue) and 4) HSE No.709 for Andhra Law Times (Legislative Supplement) is illegal, arbitrary and unconstitutional being violative of Article 14 of Constitution of India and consequently direct the respondents to renew the said licenses to utilize the concessional rates of postage and pass such other order or orders. Counsel for the Petitioner: MR.R.N.HEMENDRANATH REDDY Counsel for the Respondents: MR.K.G.KRISHNA MURTHY MR. A. RAJASEKHAR REDDY ASST. SOLICITOR GENERAL The Court made the following: ORDER: Petitioner is a publisher of Andhra Law Times (Fortnightly), Andhra Law Times (Criminal), Andhra Law Times (Revenue) and Andhra Law Times (Legislative Supplement) and that he has been publishing Andhra Law Times (ALT) journals since 1954 onwards. The Journals contains reports of recent decisions of the Honourable Supreme Court of India, Honourable High Court of Andhra Pradesh and various other Courts and also contains statutes, rules and regulations passed by competent legislatures and other borides and various articles written by eminent people of various ﬁles, which are of public importance. The Journals are registered under the Press and Registration of Book Act, 1867 and accordingly, the Registrar of Newspapers for India has issued a certificate of registration. 2. Petitioner submits that the journals/law reports were treated as newspapers and the registration licence was given by extending the beneﬁt of concessional rate of postage. The respondents have been renewing the said licence from time to time till 2000 but the renewal application for the year 2001 has been refused by the impugned letter of the ﬁrst respondent/The Senior Superintendent of Post Oﬃces, dated 24.01.2001 on the ground that the Journals of the petitioner contains collection of judgments for use in legal matters and would not qualify for concession, as political or other news or articles on current topics are not published, as such the journals are not eligible for concession. 3. Petitioner questions the said action of the respondents on various grounds contending that the Registrar of Newspapers for India issued certiﬁcate of registration treating the said journals as newspapers under the Press and Registration of Book Act and based on the said registration certiﬁcate the ﬁrst respondent also passed orders granting concessional rate of postage all these years by renewing the said licence from time to time but when an application has been made on 15.11.2000 for renewal of the same for the year 2001 the ﬁrst respondent rejected the same by order dated 24.01.2001 cancelling the magazine for concessional rate of postage. 4. Counter has been ﬁled stating that the renewal application was rejected by the impugned letter dated 24.01.2001 on the ground that the journals of the petitioner are only collection of judgments for use in the legal matter and would not qualify for concession as political or other news or articles on current topics are not published. Accordingly, the petitioner was informed vide proceeding of the ﬁrst respondent dated 24.01.2001. It is further stated that the committee examined the application of the petitioner and observed that the magazines do not contain political or other news and did not recommend for concessional rate of postage and it was decided not to renew the magazines for the year 2001. However, pursuant to the interim orders of this Court the concessional rate of postage is being extended. It is further stated that the magazines do not qualify for the posting under concessional rates as per the conditions laid down under Section 9(2) of the Indian Post Oﬃce Act, 1898 (for short ‘the Act’) and clause 139 of Post Office Guide Part I. 5. Section 9 of the Indian Post Oﬃce Act, 1898 (Act No.6 of 1898) is extracted as follows: “9. Power to make rules as to registered newspapers – (1) The Central Government may make rules providing for the registration of newspapers for transmission by inland post as registered newspapers. (2) For the purpose of such registration, every publication, consisting wholly or in great part of political or other news, or of articles relating thereto or to other current topics, with or without advertisements, shall be deemed a newspaper, subject to the following conditions, namely: - (a) that it is published in numbers at intervals of not more than thirty one days; and (b) that it has a bona fide list of subscribers.” This Court in the case of BALAMANI v. SENIOR SUPERINTENDENT OF POST OFFICES[1] while considering whether the Law Animated World published by the petitioner therein is a newspaper held that sub-section (2) of Section 9 of the Act indicates that every publication consisting wholly or in great part of 1) political or 2) other news or 3) carrying articles relating thereto or 4) to other current topics with or without advertisements, is deemed to be a newspaper. The publication need not necessarily contain wholly or in great part of political news or articles relating thereto or other current topics it is enough if the publication deals with wholly or in grated part about 1) news other than political news or 2) it if contains articles relating to current topics. If the publication deals with current topics of interest and conveys news, it is liable to be construed and entitled for registration as newspaper. The analysis of Section 9 would indicate that such of the newspapers which have been described and talked of in Section 9 are all entitled to be registered by the authority so tat concession of the duty of postage can be availed of by such a publication. Admittedly, in the instant case all the journals of the petitioner have been registered as newspapers by the competent authority i.e. the Registrar of Newspapers for India. When the journals have been registered as newspapers, it cannot be said that the journals of the petitioner publication are not entitled for concession of duty of postage. 6. Learned counsel for the petitioner placed reliance on a judgment of the Honourable Supreme Court of India in ALL INIDA REPORTER KARMACHRI SANCH AND OTHERS v. ALL INDIA REPORTER LIMITED AND OTHERS[2] wherein the Apex Court while considering the question as to whether the law reports are newspapers as deﬁned in Working Journalists and Other Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1995, considered similar contentions that all the law reports constitute news insofar as the subscribers and the readers of those reports are concerned and it s by reading these law report 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. Therefore, it may not be correct to contend that law reports do not carry any news and that the public is not interested in them. Their Lordships were of the opinion that any decision published in the law reports containing 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 matter in which the public is interested. Though the publication of certain items by themselves 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. 7. Learned counsel for the petitioner further placed reliance on a judgment of this Court in INSTITUTE OF CHARTERED FINANCIAL ANALYSTS OF INDIA v. ASSITANT SUPERINTENDENT, R.M.S DEPARTMENT OF POSTS[3] wherein this Court while considering as to whether the journal called ‘Study @ ICFAI’ is entitled for renewal and concession of postage held that once the journal is registered and renewed from time to time, the concession granted by the Postmaster General cannot be withdrawn not treating it as a newspaper for the purpose of Section 9 of the Act. He further placed reliance on another judgment of this Court in SHANTHI RADHAM MAGAZINE v. REGISTRAR OF NEWSPAPERS FOR INDIA [4] wherein this Court held that the said Shanthi Radham magazine containing articles of Yoga, Science, Health related topics, which was registered as newspaper is entitled for concessional tariﬀ treating it as a newspaper governed by Clause 139 of the Post Office Guide. 8. I am of the opinion that admittedly all the journals published by the petitioner have been registered as newspapers and if that be so, the impugned letter dated 24.01.2001 passed by the ﬁrst respondent cancelling the eligibility for concession of postage from the year 2000 onwards is illegal, arbitrary and unsustainable. Accordingly, I hold that the journals of the petitioner are newspapers within the meaning of Section 9(2) of Act and Clause 139 of the Post Oﬃce Guide and the journals are eligible for concessional rate of postage. The writ petition is accordingly allowed. There shall be no order as to costs. ______________ V. ESWARAIAH, J August 27, 2008 DSK [1] 2008 (4) ALT 232 [2] AIR 1988 SC 1325 [3] 2004 (5) ALT 440 [4] 2002 (1) ALT 268