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The relevant provisions of the Act may now be referred to. It was an Act to regulate certain conditions of service of working journalists and other persons employed in newspaper establishments. Newspaper establishment " was defined in s. 2 (d) to mean " an establishment under the control of any person or body of persons, whether incorporated or not, for the production or publication of one or more newspapers or for conducting any news agency or syndicate ". The definition of " working journalist " was almost in the same terms as that in the Working Journalists (Industrial Disputes) Act, 1955, and included a proof reader. All words and expressions used but not defined in this Act and defined in the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, were under s. 2 (g) to have the meanings respectively assigned to them in that Act. Section 3 applied the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, as it was in force for the time being, to working journalists as they applied to, or in relation to workmen within the meaning of that Act subject to the modification that s. 25 (F) of that Act in its application to working journalists in regard to the period of notice in relation to the retrenchment of a workman was to be construed as substituting six months in the case of the retrenchment of an editor and three months, in the case of any other working journalist. The period which lapsed between the publication of the report and the enactment of the Working Journalists (Industrial Disputes) Act, 1955, viz., from July 14, 1954, to March 12, 1955, was sought to be bridged over by s. 4 enacting special provisions in respect of certain cases of retrenchment during that period. Section 5 provided for the payment of gratuity, inter alia, to a working journalist who had been in continuous service, whether before or after the commencement of the Act, for not less than three years in any newspaper establishment even when he voluntarily resigned from service of that newspaper establishment. Section 6 laid down that no working journalist shall be required or allowed to work in any newspaper establishment for more than one hundred and forty-four hours during any period of four consecutive weeks, exclusive of the time for meals. Every working journalist was under s. 7 entitled to earned leave and leave on medical certificate on the terms therein specified without prejudice to such holidays, casual leave or other kinds of leave as might be prescribed. After thus providing for retrenchment compensation, payment of gratuity, hours of work, and leave, ss. 8 to 1 1 of the Act provided for fixation of the rates of wages in respect of working journalists. Section 8 authorised the Central Government by notification in the Official Gazette to constitute a Wage Board for fixing rates of wages in respect of the working journalists in accordance with the provisions of the Act, which Board was to consist of an equal number of persons nominated by the Central Government to represent employers in relation to the newspaper establishments- and working journa lists, and an independent person appointed by the Central Government as the Chairman thereof. Section 9 laid down the circumstances which the Wage Board was to have regard to in fixing rates of wages and these circumstances were the cost of living, the prevalent rates of wages for comparable employments, the circumstances relating to the newspaper industry in different regions of the country and to any other circumstance which to the Board may seem relevant. The decision of the Board fixing rates of wages was to be communicated as soon as practicable to the Central Government and this decision was under s. 10 to be published by the Central Government in such manner as it thought fit within a period of one month from the date of its receipt by the Central Government and the decision so published was to come into operation with effect from such date as may be specified, and where no date was so specified on the date of its publication. Section 11 prescribed the powers and procedure of the Board and stated that subject to any rules of procedure which might be prescribed the Board may, for the purpose of fixing rates of wages, exercise the same powers and follow the same procedure as an Industrial Tribunal constituted under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, exercised or followed for the purpose of adjudicating an industrial dispute referred to it. The decision of the Board under s. 12 was declared to be binding on all employers in relation to newspaper establishments and every working journalist was entitled to be paid wages at a rate which was to be in no case less than the rate of wages fixed by the Board. Sections 14 and 15 applied the provisions of the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946, as it was in force for the time being and also the provisions of the Employees' Provident Funds Act, 1952, as it was in force for the time being, to every newspaper establishment in which twenty or more persons were employed. Section 17 provided for the recovery of money due from an employer and enacted that where any money was due to a newspaper employee from an employer under any of the provisions of the Act, whether by way of compensation, gratuity or wages, the newspaper employee might, without prejudice to any other mode of recovery, make an application to the State Government for the recovery of the money due to him, and if the State Government or such authority as the State Government might specify in this behalf was satisfied that any money was so due, it shall issue a certificate for that amount to the collector and the collector shall proceed to recover that amount in the same manner as an arrear of land revenue. Section 20 empowered the Central Government by. notification in the Official Gazette to make rules to carry out the purposes of the Act and in particular and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing power, such rules were to provide inter alia for the procedure to be followed by the Board in fixing rates of wages. All rules made under this section, as soon as practicable after they were made were to be laid before both Houses of Parliament. The Working Journalists (Industrial Disputes) Act, 1955, was repealed by s. 21 of the Act.

After considerable discussion on March 25, 1957, and March 26, 1957, in which the representatives of the newspapers and of working journalists had joint Sittings, unanimous decisions were arrived at on (i) classification of newspapers, (ii) classification of centres and (iii) classification of employees, except on one point, namely, classification of group, multiple units and chains on the basis of their total gross revenue. This was agreed to by a majority decision. The chairman and the representatives of the working journalists voted in favour while the representatives of the employers voted against. Regarding scales of pay, the chairman suggested at the meeting of March 27, 1957, that pending final settlement of the issue the parties should submit figures of scales based on both assumptions, namely, consolidated wages and basic scales with separate dearness allowance. Both sides agreed to submit concrete suggestions on the following day. At the Board's meeting on March 28, 1957, the representatives of the employers stated that the term CC rates of pay " did not include scales of pay ; there fore, the Board was not competent to fix scales of working journalists and they submitted a written statement signed by all of them to the chairman in support of their contention. The representatives of the working journalists argued that the Board was competent to fix scales of pay. The chairman adjourned the sitting of the Board to study this issue. A copy of the written statement submitted by the representatives of the employers was given to the representatives of the working journalists and they submitted a written reply the same afternoon contending that the Board was competent to fix scales of pay of various categories of working journalists.' At its meeting on March 29, 1957, the Board discussed its own competency to fix scales of pay. The chairman expressed his opinion in writing, whereby he held that the Board was competent to fix scales of pay. On a vote being taken according to r. 8 of the Working Journalists Wage Board Rules, 1956, the chairman and the representatives of the working journalists voted in favour of the competence of the Board to fix scales of pay, while the representatives of the employers voted against it. Thereafter, several suggestions were made on this question, but since there was no possibility of any agreement on this issue, the chairman suggested that members should submit their specific scales to him for his study to which the mem- bers agreed. It was also decided that the chairman would have separate discussions with representatives of working journalists in the morning and with representatives of employers in the afternoon of March 30, 1957. It was also decided that the Board should meet again on March 31, 1957, for further discussions. No final decision was however arrived at in the meeting of the Board held on March 31, 1957, on scales of pay, allowances, date of operation of the decision, etc. It was decided that the Board should meet again on April 22, 1957, to take final decisions. A meeting of the Board was accordingly held from April 22 to 24, 1957, in the office of the Wage Board at Bombay. It was unanimously agreed that the word "decision" should be used wherever the word " report" occurred. The question of the nature of the decisions which should be submitted to the Government was then considered. It was agreed that reasons need not be given for each of the decisions, and that it would be sufficient only to record the decisions. The members then requested the chairman to study the proposals regarding scales of pay, etc., submitted by, both the parties and to give his own proposals so that they may take a final decision. Accordingly, the chairman circulated to all the members his proposals regarding pay scales, dearness allowance, location allowance and retainer allowance. The following were the decisions arrived at by the Board on the various points under consideration and they were unanimous except where otherwise stated. The same may be set out here so far as they are relevant for the purposes of the inquiry before US.

The Press Trust of India Ltd., the petitioners in Petition No. 99 of 1957, are a non-profit making cooperative organization of newspaper proprietors. They employ 820 employees in all, out of whom 170 are working journalists and 650 do not come within that definition. Their total wage bill is Rs. 21,00,000 per year (approximately) out of which the annual salary of the working journalists is Rs. 9,00,000. The ,increase in their wage bill due to increase in the salary of the working journalists as per the decision of the. Wage Board would come to Rs. 4,05,600 and they would have to pay by way of arrears by reason of the retrospective operation of the decision another sum of Rs. 4,05,600 to the working journalists. There would also be an additional financial burden of Rs. 60,000 every year by reason of the recurring increments in the monthly salaries of the working journalists employed by them. If the benefits of the Wage Board decision were extended to the other members of the staff who are not working journalists within the definition of that term but who have also made similar demands on them, a further annual burden would be imposed on the petitioners which is estimated at Rs. 3,90,000. If perchance the petitioners not being able to run their concern except at a loss intended to close down the same, the amount which they would have to pay to the working journalists under the pro- visions of the Act and the decision of the Wage Board would be Rs. 23,68,500 as against the old scale liability of Rs. 11,62,500 and the other members of the staff who do not fall within the category of working journalists would have to be paid a further sum of Rs. 15,50,000. The total liability of the petitioners in such an event would amount to Rs. 39,18,000 as against the old liability of Rs. 27,12,500. The Indian National Press (Bombay) Private Ltd., otherwise known as the Free Press Group, are petitioners in Petition No. 100 of 1957. They publish (i) Free Press Journal, a morning English Daily (ii) Free Press Bulletin, an evening English Daily (iii) Bharat Jyoti, an English Weekly (iv) Janashakti, a morning Gujarati Daily and (v) Navashakthi, a Marathi Dailyall from Bombay. They employ 442 employees including part-time correspondents out of whom 65 are working journalists and 21 are proof readers and the rest form members of the other staff not falling within the category of working journalists. The effect of the decision of the Wage Board would be that there would have to be an immediate payment of Rs. 1,73,811 by reason of the retrospective operation of the decision and there will also be an annual 'increase in the wage bill to the same extent, i. e., Rs. 1,73,811. There will also be a yearly recurring increase to the extent of Rs. 22,470 and also corresponding increase for contribution to the provident fund on account of increase in salary. Under the provisions of the Act in regard to reduced hours of work, and increase in leave, moreover, there will be an increase in liability to pay Rs. 90,669 and Rs. 29,806 respectively, in the case of working journalists, besides the liability for past gratuity in another sum of Rs. 1,08,534 and recurring annual liability for gratuity in a sum of Rs. 17,995. If similar benefits would have to be given to the other members of the staff who do not fall within the definition of working journalists the annual burden would be increased by a sum of Rs. 1,80,000. This would be the position by reason of the petitioners being classified and treated as a chain of newspapers and having been classified as " A " class newspaper establishment on a total computation of the gross revenue of all their units. If they were not so treated and the component units were classified on their individual gross revenue the result would be that the Free Press Journal, the Free Press Bulletin and the Bharat Jyoti would fall within class " A ", and Navashakti would fall within class " C "

(a)Increase in the annual wage bill, Rs. 5,02,000 (Approx.),

(b) arrears of payments from May 2, 1956, to April 30, 1957, Rs. 4,51,000 (Approx.), (c) Past liability in respect of gratuity as on March 31, 1957, Rs. 5,50,000 (Approx.), (d) Recurring annual liability for gratuity Rs. 60,000 (Approx.). The total comes to Rs. 15,63,000.

The petitioners in Petition No. 116 of 1957 are the Loksatta Karyalaya, Baroda, which publish the Loksatta, a Gujarati Daily from Baroda. They employ 15 working journalists. The annual wage bill of working journalists would have to be increased by reason of the decision of the Wage Board by Rs. 10,800; the burden of payment of retrospective liability being Rs. 9,600. Moreover, there will be a recurring annual burden of Rs. 6,340 inclusive of the expenditure involved by reason of the provisions as to (i) Notice pay, (ii) Gratuity, (iii) Retrenchment compensation and (iv) Extra burden of reduced hours of work and increased leave. The Sandesh Ltd., the petitioners in Petition No. 117 of 1957, otherwise styled, the Sandesh Group, Ahmeda bad, publish (i) Sandesh, a morning Gujarati Daily, (ii) Sevak, an evening Gujarati Daily, (iii) Bal Sandesh, a Gujarati Weekly, and (iv) Aram, and (v) Sat Sandesh, Gujarati Monthlies-all from Ahmedabad. They employ a total staff of 205 employees out of whom there are 11 working journalists, 7 proof readers and the rest 187 constitute the other members of the staff. The increase in the wage bill of the working journalists under the provisions of the Act would be Rs. 24,807 per year besides a similar liability for Rs. 24,807 by reason of the retrospective operation of the decision. There will be an increase in expenditure to the tune of Rs. 30,900 by reason of the reduced working hours and increase in leave and holidays, a liability of Rs. 31, 597 for past gratuity and Rs. 24,807 every year for recurring gratuity as also Rs. 1,530 for recurring increase in wages of the working journalists. The financial burden in the case of proof-readers who are included in the definition of working journalists tinder the terms of the Act would be Rs. 5,724 per year. If similar benefits were to be given to the other members of the staff who are not working journalists the annual increase in the burden will be Rs. 1,89,816. The total costs of closing down if such an eventuality' were contemplated would be Rs. 1,08,997 for the working journalists only as against a liability of Rs. 22,755 on the old basis. The other members of the staff would have to be paid Rs. 1,46,351 and the total cost of closing down the whole concern would thus conic to Rs. 2,55,349 under the new dispensation as against Rs. 1,69,106 as of old. The Jansatta Karyalaya, Ahmedabad, petitioners in Petition No. 118 of 1957 bring out (i) Jansatta, a Gujarati Daily and