ALL INDIA REPORTER LIMITED Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner All India Reporter Ltd., which is a Public Limited Company incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956, is a leading law publisher in India. It publishes commentaries on various statutes, Manuals, Digests and the following Law Reports : (1) All India Reporter (2) Criminal Law Journal (3) Labour and Industrial Cases (4) Taxation Law Reports (5) Allahabad Law Journal (6) U.P. Law Tribune

(2.) The law reports published by the petitioner company are ad verbatim reproduction of the judgments delivered by various High Courts and also the Supreme Court of India. The judgments are point-noted and the head-notes are prepared showing the important questions of law adjudicated upon the concerned judgments. The law reports are published periodically in 12 parts every year, except the Allahabad Law Journal, which is published in 24 parts, and at the end of the year common Index of the whole volume is prepared and supplied to each customer subscribing to the law reports. The law reports usually contain two parts, viz., (1) Journal Section; and (2) Judgments. The Journal Section mainly consists of Articles on various legal topics and reviews of law books. It also consists of reproduction of various enactments, rules and notifications published therein. The main part of the law reports, however, consists of judgments of various High Courts and Supreme Court. From the statement filed by the petitioner during the course of hearing, it appears that out of 4,22,412 pages, of the All India Reporter published during the years from 1922 to 1982, only 6,790 (which comes to 1.63 per cent) were utilized for Journal Section, while the remaining 4,15,622 pages were utilised for reproduction of judgments.

(3.) The petitioner company was established in 1922, but the law reports published by the petitioner were not registered as Newspapers under the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867, till 1957, presumably because till the aforesaid enactment was amended by Act No. 55 of 1955 with effect from 1st July, 1957 and Chapter V-A, which deals with registration of newspapers, was inserted, there was no provision in the Act which required registration. The All India Reporter and the Criminal Law Journal were registered under the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867, as amended by Act No. 55 of 1955 in 1957 and other periodicals were so registered as and when they were acquired by the petitioner company. The petitioner company has, however, written letters (Annexure K, pages 92 to 97 of the petition) on 4th November, 1982 to the Registrar of Newspapers of India, New Delhi, for cancelling the registration of all the law reports published by the petitioner. The periodicals (i.e. Law Journals published by the petitioner), however, are registered as newspapers under S. 9 of the Indian Post Offices Act, 1898, and are transmitted by post as 'Registered Post', as contemplated by Rule 30 of the Indian Post Offices Rules, 1933.