JACOB CHERIAN Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These writ petitions come before us by way of a reference as a learned Single Judge found that the contentions raised by the petitioners have far reaching consequences.

(2.) Photography and its allied activities - a pure work of art outside the purview of works contract - is the question raised in these writ petitions. Where photographic cameras started clicking during the regime of Queen Victoria, much impressed by the modern gadget, the Queen expressed an apprehension to Alfred Chalon, the artist, whether photography might ruin his profession - portrait painting. He replied 'Ah, non, Madame, the photography cannot flattere'. But the petitioners before us would contend that as much artistic skill and talent is required to be invested in a photograph as in a portrait painted. According to them, photography is a work of art. They quote in their support, observations made by the apex Court in Asst. Sales Tax Officer & Others v. B.C. Kame, 1977 (39) STC 237 .

(3.) Photography is the art of fixing an optical image by photochemical means. The word photography means "drawing a picture with light". The picture is 'drawn' by the glass lens in the front of the Camera and is recorded on the light sensitive chemicals on the roll of film. Surface which is sensitive to light is the most important component of photography. Even though some 2000 years ago such surfaces were used for decorative purposes in China and the effect of light on some such substances were studied by the Arabs in the middle ages, Europe started to take interest in this subject only by about 1550. It was at that time 'camera obscura' had been fitted with a lens by Giambattista della Porta. The modern word camera for a photographic apparatus is derived from Latin "camera obscura" meaning "darkend room". Research was going on as to how the images coming through the lens could be fixed, and this became theoretically possible when J.H. Schulze observed the blackening of silver salts by sunlight in 1727. Further developments were made in this area by the research of K.W. Sheela and William Lewis and thereafter by Thomas Wedgwood. It was in 1835, William H. Fox Talbot who was trained as a scientist at Cambridge University discovered, that the blackening could be stopped by washing pictures in brine and then could make positive print out of it. During the same period, J. Nicephore Niepce, a French Officer and Louis Jacques Mande Danguerre were experimenting on this subject in France. In 1837, Danguerre developed a really satisfactory photographic 'I process and it was called the "daguerreotype'. The full rights to the above invention was sold to the French Government in the year 1839 by Daguerre and Niepce's son in return for an annuity for life. On August 19th, the French Government published the full working details of daguerreotype. Coming to know about the work carried on by Daguerre, Talbot published his 'photogenic drawing process' and subsequently explained his technique in full detail to the members of the Royal Society. That was six months before the French Government published working directions for the Daguerreotype. This, in short, is the early history of photography.