Report No. 38
41. Section 9-Renewal of registration.-
Section 9, dealing with rules for the registration of newspapers for transmission by inland post, has figured in certain decisions. In one case,1 the main point related to the power of a Postmaster-General to cancel registration under the Rules. It was held, that if the Postmaster-General once holds that a magazine comes within the purview of section 9, then it is not open to him, on the same set of facts, to come to a different conclusion afterwards, during the period when the registration is in force, and to cancel registration on that ground.
Every successive Postmaster-General cannot, while the registration is in force, cancel it on the ground that the newspaper does not satisfy the prescribed conditions. There is also a discussion in this case about the meaning of the expression "current topics", used in section 9(2), opening paragraph. No amendment of the section is, however, called for.
In a Bombay case,2 it has been held, that the right to concessional rates under the Act and rules thereunder is not a fundamental right under Article 19 of the Constitution, where registration as a "newspaper" is denied to a short-story magazine.
1. Kali Charon v. Postmaster-General, AIR 1956 All 87 (89).
2. Sevantilal v. V.D. Dalvi, AIR 1961 Born 105 (110), para. 23.
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