TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1988 (5) TMI 342
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....No. 45 of 1955) (hereinafter referred to as "the Act") and whether the employees of the 1st respondent engaged in the production or publication of the said law reports are entitled to the benefits conferred upon the employees of newspaper establishments by the Act. The Act was enacted on December 20, 1955 with the object of regulating certain conditions of service of working journalists and other employees employed in the newspaper establishments. The expression "newspaper" is defined by section 2(b) of the Act as follows: " 'Newspaper' means any printed periodical work containing public news or comments on public news and includes such other class of printed periodical work as may, from time to time, be notified in this behalf by the Central Government in the Official Gazette." A "newspaper employee" is defined by section 2(c) of the Act as any working journalist, and includes any other person employed to do any work in, or in relation to, any newspaper establishment. "Newspaper establishment" is defined by section 2(d) of the Act as an establishment under the control of any person or body of persons, whether incorporated or not, for the production or publication of one o....
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....Act 6 of 1979 provides for the constitution of a Tribunal for fixing or revising rates of wages in respect of working journalists where the Central Government is of opinion that the Board constituted under section 9 for the purpose of fixing or revising rates of wages in respect of working journalists under the Act has not been able to function effectively. That Tribunal has to consist of a Judge of the High Court or of the Supreme Court. Similarly section 13DD of the Act empowers the Central Government to constitute a Tribunal where it is of opinion that the Board constituted under section 13C of the Act has not been able to function effectively. Section 13AA and section 13DD of the Act came into force with effect from January 31, 1979. In exercise of the powers conferred by section 13AA and section 13DD of the Act the Central Government constituted under two separate notifications two Tribunals on February 9, 1979 with justice Palekar, a former judge of the Supreme Court, as the member of each of the two Tribunals to make recommendations in respect of fixing or revising wages of working journalists as well as non-working journalists. Justice Palekar made his recommendations on....
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....apers as defined in the Act and therefore the order made by the Central Government on the basis of the recommendations of Justice Palekar were not applicable to its establishment. The High Court accepted the plea of the 1st respondent and declared that the law reports were not newspapers within the meaning of section 2(b) of the Act and that the demand made by the Deputy Labour Commissioner to comply with the order made by the Central Government on the basis of the recommendations of justice Palekar was unsustainable by its judgment dated April 22, 1983. Aggrieved by the decision of the High Court the appellants have filed this appeal by special leave. The 1st respondent, All India Reporter Limited, publishes in addition to the law reports referred in the first paragraph of this judgment several other books, commentaries, digests and manuals. But we are concerned in this case with the narrow question whether the six law reports which are being published by the 1st respondent are newspapers within the meaning of the Act and whether the employees engaged in their production or distribution are entitled to the benefit of the orders made by the Central Government on the basis of the....
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.... events; new occurrences as a subject of report or talk. The law reports which are being published by the 1st respondent are reports of recent decisions of the Supreme Court of India and of the High Courts in India which are supplied to it by its agents appointed at New Delhi and other places where High Courts are situated. It cannot be disputed that these decisions are of public importance. Article 141 of the Constitution provides that the law declared by the Supreme Court shall be binding on all courts within the territory of India. Even apart from article 141 of the Constitution the decisions of the Supreme Court, which is a court of record, constitute a source of law as they are the judicial precedents of the highest court of the land. They are binding on all the courts throughout India. Similarly the decisions of every High Court being judicial precedents are binding on all courts situated in the territory over which the High Court exercises jurisdiction. Those decisions also carry persuasive value before courts which are not situated within its territory. The decisions of the Supreme Court and of the High Courts are almost as important as statutes, rules and regulations passe....
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....news. Strong reliance was placed on behalf of the 1st respondent on the decision of the High Court of Orissa in P.S.V. Iyer v. Commissioner of Sales Tax, Orissa [1960] 11 STC 608; AIR 1960 Orissa 221, in which the question that arose for consideration was whether a law journal-Cuttack Law Times, which was a non-official monthly journal containing the decisions of the Orissa High Court, the Orissa Board of Revenue and also of the Supreme Court was a newspaper and if it was a newspaper whether it was competent for the Legislature of the State of Orissa to levy sales tax on the sale of the said journal. The said question arose in that form in view of the language of entry 54 of List II of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution which read as follows: "54. Taxes on the sale or purchase of goods other than newspapers, subject to entry 92-A of List I" The language of entry 92 of List I of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution which conferred on Parliament alone the power to tax sale or purchase of newspapers was in the following terms: "92. Tax on the sale or purchase of newspapers and on advertisements published therein." After referring to the definition of the expre....
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.... the expression 'public news' is of sufficiently wide amplitude to cover the publications of both the petitioners in question." It is seen that the editor of the law report containing the above decision has appended an editorial comment on this stating that this decision is wrong and that the Orissa High Court's decision was right. Justice A.N. Grover, who later became a Judge of the Supreme Court of India and the Chairman of the Press Council, as a Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court held in L.D. Jain v. General Manager, Government of India Press ILR [1967] P & H 193 that the Gazette of India which was the official publication of all kinds of news and information was a newspaper within the meaning of section 2(b) of the Working Journalists (Conditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1955 and that it was not essential for a newspaper to conform strictly to the usual pattern of a daily or weekly or monthly newspaper or a magazine containing news which members of the public ordinarily read in order to get reports of recent events, comments on them, etc. In doing so, he distinguished the decision of the Australian Court in Ex Parte Stillwell [1923] 29 VLR 41....