Case: All India Reporter Karamchari Sangh &amp; Ors Vs. All India Reporter Limited And Ors

a law report 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.The High Court of Madras declined to follow the above decision of the Orissa High Court in its decision in T. V. Ramnath v. Union of India 1975 Lab IC 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." 9. 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 Courts decision was right. Justice A. N. 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 and Haryana High Court held in L. D. Jain v. General Manager, Government of India Press ILR (1967) P & H 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 2(b) 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 (1923) 29 VLR 413 in which the Bradshaws 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 1st respondent cannot derive any assistance from the decision of the High Court of Bombay in Commissioner on Sales Tax v. Express Printing Press [1983] 52 STC 290 ; AIR 1983 Bom 190 , in which the Bombay High Court held that the two publications by name "Joker" 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. 10. 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 observed 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 relation to the following subjects : 11. 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. 12. 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 enacted Acts, Rules and Regulations, books 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 sometime cease to be a newspaper and become a book of reference. 13. 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. 14. We are of the view that the law reports published by the 1st respondent are newspapers and the employees employed by the 1st 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.

Decision (1 = appeal accepted, 0 = rejected): 1

Explanation:
1[ds]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 acceptedWe are of the view that the law reports published by the 1st respondent are newspapers and the employees employed by the 1st 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.