THATIKONDA KRISHNA Vs. PRINCIPAL SECRETARY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Mr. Vivek Jain, learned counsel appears as Amicus Curiae. Mr. Chikkudu Prabhakar, learned counsel for the petitioners. Mr. S.Rahul Reddy, learned Special Government Pleader attached to the office of the learned Additional Advocate General for the State of Telangana appears for the respondents.

(2.) The petitioners are journalists employed by various small newspapers, which are published from various places in the State of Telangana. In this writ petition, the petitioners have assailed the validity of Schedule-E of G.O.Ms.No.239 (Gen. Administration (I&PR) Department) dtd. 15/7/2016, insofar as it categorises small newspapers in the State of Telangana into A, B, C and D categories for the purposes of issue of accreditation cards. The aforesaid Schedule-E appended to G.O.Ms.No.239 dtd. 15/7/2016 has been challenged on the ground that the same is violative of Articles 14, 16, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India.

(3.) The erstwhile State Government, in exercise of the executive powers, framed a policy for recognition of media representatives by the State Government for the purpose of access to all sources of official information in the State Government as well as to grant the benefit of schemes framed by the Government to the journalists. The aforesaid policy was known as Andhra Pradesh Media Accreditation Rules, 2005. Under the aforesaid Rules, which are executive in nature, three categories of newspapers namely big dailies and periodicals, medium dailies and periodicals and small dailies and periodicals were recognized for the purpose of grant of accreditation. The grant of recognition to the aforesaid three categories of dailies and periodicals was based on the number of copies in circulation and number of pages in circulation of said newspapers and dailies.