STATE OF BIHAR Vs. PRESS COUNCIL OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Has the Press Council of India the Jurisdiction to consider the complaint of the editor of a newspaper against the Government with a view to help the newspaper to maintain its independence ? Can the Council give the Government an opportunity to rebut the complaint if the Government so desires ? These questions are raised by the present writ petition.

(2.) The petitioner is the State of Bihar. The three respondents respectively are the Press Council of India, the Editor of "The Searchlight" a daily newspaper published from Patna-and the Secretary, Press Council of India. The Government of Bihar constituted what it called the Food Committee giving the members of the said Committee the status of cabinet ministers with all the facilities and perquisites A attached to such status in doing the work of the Committee in the State of Bihar. The Editor of the "Indian Nation", another English newspaper of Patna and Shtt Shambhu Nath Jha, Assistant Editor of the Searchlight were appointed members of the Committee along with other persons including, it is said, members of the Opposition. The Editor of the Searchlight wrote to the Chairman of the Press Council emphasising that this action of the Government was a new dimension of the governmental pressure on the press and that it amounted to bribing the press by giving an editor and an assistant editor of newspapers the status of cabinet ministers with their perquisites. He requested the Press Council to consider whether this leads to the erosion of freedom of the press and journalists by accepting such offices and violates journalistic ethics. The Secretary of the Council forwarded a copy of this letter to the Government of Bihar. The Government wrote back to say that their action did not amount to interference with the freedom of the press as the Committee was serving the cause of the people of the State. -Further, the Assistant Editor of the Searchlight resigned from the Committee. The Editor of the Searchlight, however, persisted in his request for an enquiry by the Press Council into this matter. According to him, the resignation of his Assistant Editor did not close the chapter because the Editor of the Indian Nation still continued to be a member of the Food Committee and a larger issue was involved for consideration. He, therefore, sought a ruling of the Press Council on this question of principle because Government may set up similar other committees drafting working journalists as members of the same. He also pointed out that before becoming a member of the Committee, his Assistant Editor had criticised the Government policy of the wheat takeover in accordance with the views of the newspaper Searchlight. But after becoming a member of the Committee, the said Assistant Editor championed the policy of the Government and did propaganda for it. In other words, it was so tempting that notwithstanding his own earlier stand he agreed to join the Committee. The Editor complained that this was nothing but bribery of the press by the Government. The Press Council, therefore, invited the Government of Bihar to reply to this complaint and informed them that an enquiry into the matter would be held by the Council and that the Government of Bihar may, if they so desire, appear before the Council at the enquiry and may adduce such evidence, oral or documentary, and make such oral submissions as they may deem necessary in support of their case.

(3.) The State of Bihar has filed the present writ petition contending :-