Bare Acts by private cos infringe govt copyright: PIL in HC

A PIL in the Delhi High Court today contended that the publication of bare acts, an exact text of a particular law, of central legislations by private publishers amounted to infringing the government's copyright and loss of money to the exchequer.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar issued notice to the Ministry of Law as well as the Department of Publications under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and sought their stand on the issue raised in the petition filed by a lawyer.
The petitioner, Arpit Bhargava, has contended that the central government is allowing the public to suffer at the hands of private publishers by not publishing on its own and ensuring availability of authentic, accurate and reasonably priced hard copies of its acts, rules, notifications and various amendments from time to time.

He has alleged that private players "have created a monopoly and charging the public at large at their whims and fancies without any regard to public interest".
He has said that the Acts of Parliament were in public domain and under copyright ownership of the government and, therefore, these cannot be allowed to be used by selected few for commercial gains.
"At best, they could only have been used for personal or professional use by public at large," the PIL has said.

According to the petition, some prominent private business entities which are involved in publication and distribution of bare acts are Universal Publications, Lexis Nexis, Taxmann Publications, Professional Publications and CCH-Wolters Kluwer.

The petitioner has contended that fundamental rights include the 'Right to Know' which obliges the government to inform the citizens about law by disseminating knowledge by publishing legislations, rules, notifications and regulations which are "reasonably priced, accurate and authentic".
Bhargava has also alleged that apart from the high prices of the private publications, some were also inaccurate.
He has contended the Copyright Act prohibits reproduction or publication of central Acts and these can be published only if they are "knit together with commentary or any other original matter".
He has sought directions to the government to take immediate steps to ensure availability of its own authentic, accurate and reasonably priced publications of all central acts, rules, notifications and their amendments.

The petition has also sought orders to the government to "immediately bar or prohibit private business houses or publishers and others from publishing and printing all central acts, rules and notifications in contravention of provisions of the Copyright Act 1957".
It has sought civil and criminal action against the private business houses or publishers and others for infringing the copyright of the government.