EXPRESS NEWSPAPER PRIVATE LIMITED Vs. COLLECTOR OF DELHI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner in this writ petition is Express Newspapers (Private) Limited, a company incorporated under the Indian Companies Act and having its registered office at Mount Road, Madras. The respondents are (1) Shri P. L. Bhargava, Naib Tehsildar, Tis Hazari Building, Delhi, (2) the Chief Commissioner, Delhi, and (3) the Collector of Bombay. The said company owned a publication called "Delhi Express".

(2.) According to the petitioner, it promoted a cross-word prize competition called "Squarewords", and published the same in the "Delhi Express" since October, 1952. It was averred in the writ petition that the said prize competition was promoted, established and carried on in Delhi in the "Delhi Express", but entries for the same were received from various parts of India including the State of Bombay.

(3.) On 15th November, 1948, the then Government of Bombay enacted an Act called the Bombay Lotteries and Prize Competitions Control and Tax Act No. LIV of 1948 to control and levy a tax on lotteries and prize competitions in the then Province of Bombay. The said Act came into force on 1st December, 1948. The said Act, as originally enacted, did not extend or apply to prize competitions contained in a newspaper printed a(nd published outside the then Province of Bombay. The Act was, however, amended by the Amending Act XXX of 1952, on 2nd November, 1952. By the said Amending Act, the words "but does not include a prize competition contained in a newspaper printed and published outside the Province of Bombay" which occured in the definition of the term "prize competition" in section 2(1)(c) of the original Act, were deleted. Thus, the effect of the Amending Act was that it extended the scope and application of the original Act to prize competitions contained in newspapers printed and published outside the State of Bombay.