OBSERVER PUBLICATIONS PRIVATE LIMITED Vs. RAILWAY BOARD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition of Messrs 0bserver Publications (P.) Limited, under Artle 226 of the Constitution of India seeks to question the validity of the ban imposed by the respondent Railway Board (Ministry of Railways) on the news-weekly called the "Indian Observer" published by the petitioner and sold at the book-stalls of the various railway stations in India through tile licencees of the respondent.

(2.) According to the petitioner, their publication called the Indian Observer' has been sold at book-stalls of railway platforms throughout ln.dia since 1951. It may be mentioned at this stage that according to the respondent the sale of this publication is admitted from the year 1963. Nothing really turns on. this difference between the petitioner and the respondent and it would not b3 necessary to make mention of this again. In its issue of 11th of September, 1964. (Annexure A) the Indian Observer' published an article under the caption "Black Marketting in Deluxe trains tickets". It was stated that tickets for the Deluxe trains could be procured by offering a bribe of R-;. 5 to Rs. 10,- per ticket ten minutes before the departure of the train, this feature started with the observation of the Railway Minister (Shri. S. K. Patil) about the speed of trains in western countries which ranged between 60 to 100 miles per hour, whereas the speed in India was less than 32 miles per hour. It was suggested that the speed of corruption, however, on the Indian Railways was far ahead of the other countries. It seems that Messrs. A. H. Wheeler & Co., who are the licencees of the Railway book-stalls throughout the country, stopped the sale of this paper and a letter was written by the Manager of the Indian Observer on 19th September, 1964 (Annexure R. 1) that "unless and until any Court of law or any authority declares this paper as obscene, they cannot stop the sale of the paper". The Chief Commercial Superintendent of the Northern Railway was asked in this letter that a temporary order may be issued to Messrs A. H. Wheeler & Co. to restore the sale of this paper peilding a final decision, on 26 th of September, 1964, the General Manager of the nothern Railway informed the newspaper that temporary permission had been given to A. H. Wheeler & Co. to sell this paper. A. H. Wheeler & Co. however, wrote to the petitioner to obtain the sanction of the Railway Board direct for the sale of this paper. This is Annexure 'G' of 28th of September, 1964. What happend next was that the Western Railway asked A. H. Wheeler & Co. to stop the sale of the Indian Observer at 60 railway stations under its control. This was on 17th of November, 1964 (Annexure H). There is next a letter of the Railway Board addressed to the Manager of the Indian Observer on 23rd November, 1964 (Annexure 1) that the sale of the paper may be done "at railway bookstalls freely as dene previously". The Western Railway, however, continued with their ban and informed the petitioner to this effect in their letter of 4th of December, 1964 (Annexure J). On this a representation was made to the Railway Board by the petitioner on 18th of December, 1964, to which they received a reply on 1st of January, 1965 that the matter "is being looked into" (vide Annexute N).

(3.) The petitioner in its issue of the Indian Observer published another article on railways under the caption "Corruption Reports" on 8th January 1965. Three specific cases were mentioned of officials who had obtained promotion by corrupting the superior officers.