MADANLAL Vs. SUB-DIVISIONAL MAGISTRATE CITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner in this case, who is the Manager of 'nav Bharat', a Hindi daily newspaper published from Jabalpur, seeks a writ of certiorari for quashing an order, dated 2nd March, 1964, of the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (City), Jabalpur, rejecting his application under Section 8b of the Press and Registration of Books act, 1867, (hereinafter referred to as the Act), for cancellation of a declaration under the Act made by the respondent No. 2, Munder Sharma, in respect of 'nai duniya' daily, also a newspaper published from Jabalpur. The petitioner also prays that the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (City), Jabalpur, be commanded by a direction to cancel the declaration under the Act made by the non-applicant No. 2.

(2.) SECTION 5 of the Act prohibits the publication of any newspaper except in conformity with the rules laid down therein. One of the rules requires that the printer and publisher of every newspaper shall appear in person or by agent duly authorised before a Magistrate specified in Section 5 (2) and shall make and subscribe in duplicate a declaration that he is the printer or publisher, or the printer and publisher, of the newspaper in question bearing a certain title and printed at a particular press. Rule 3 of the Rules framed under Section 20a of the act says that every declaration made under Section 5 of the Act shall be in Form I appended to the rules and the person making the declaration shall give full and true particulars therein, On 1st January, 1963, the non-applicant No. 2, Muncler sharma, made a declaration in respect of the newspaper 'nai Duniya'. In that declaration the "owner's name" was stated in column 10 as under; "m/s. Jabalpur Journals (Private) Ltd. heretobefore as licensee 'nai duniya', Indore. This is the firm which is the owner of all the three editions of 'nat DUNIYA', Indore, Raipur and Jabalpur. " this declaration was authenticated under Section 6 of the Act by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (City), Jabalpur, on 2nd January, 1963. The proviso to section 6 of the Act states that--"provided that where any declaration is made and subscribed under section 5 in respect of a newspaper, the declaration shall not, save in the case of newspapers owned by the same person, be so authenticated unless the Magistrate is, on inquiry from the Press Registrar, satisfied that the news, paper proposed to be published does not bear a title which is the same as, or similar to, that of any other newspaper published cither in the same language or in the same State. " the printing and publishing of the newspaper 'nai Duniya' commenced after the authentication of the declaration. In October, 1963, the petitioner filed an application under Section 8b of the Act for cancellation of the declaration filed by shri Sarma alleging that the declaration filed by him was on the false representation that the newspaper 'nai Duniya' published from Indore, Jabaipur and Raipur were owned by the same persons or body; that the three publications were owned by different set of persons; and that, therefore, the publication from these three places, in the State, of the newspaper in Hindi language bearing the same title, namely, 'nai Duniya', was in violation of the proviso to Section 6 of the act.

(3.) ON receipt of the petitioner's application under Section 8b, the Sub-Divisional magistrate (City), Jabaipur, held an enquiry after giving an opportunity of hearing to the respondent No. 2, and at the end of it came to the conclusion that the newspaper 'nai Duniya' published from Indore and Jabaipur was owned by the same persons; and that the firm, M/s Jabaipur Journals (Private) Ltd. , was only a licensee of the Indore firm 'nai Duniya', in regard to the printing and publication of the newspaper from Jabaipur, and thus there was no infringement of Section 8b (ii) of the Act or of the proviso to Section 6. He, however, found that there was an infringement on the part of the non-applicant No. 2 of Section 5 (1) of the Act in that instead of publishing the names of the owners of the newspaper as required by that section, the names of the persons constituting M/s Jabalpur journals (Private) Ltd. , were published. It was further held that while making the declaration under Section 5 of the Act the non-applicant No. 2 Sharma did not comply with Section 5 (2b) of the Act under which M/s Jabaipur Journals (Private) Ltd. , not being the owners of the newspaper, the said non-applicant was required to file with the declaration an authority in writing from the Indore firm Nai Duniya authorising him to make and subscribe the declaration. The Sub-Divisional Magistrate took the view that the breaches of Sections 5 (1) and 5 (2b) were technical and did not Justify the action of cancellation of the declaration. He, however, directed the non-applicant No. 2 to publish the names of the owners on every copy of the newspaper as laid down by section 5 (1) of the Act and also to produce within a fortnight the authority from the Indore-flrm Nai Duniya for the declaration which had been filed.