'Working journalists can't be considered employees': Bombay HC

livemint.com:

Live Law, a division bench of Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice Sandeep Marne delivered the judgment in three writ petitions filed by working journalists and newspapers challenging the Industrial court orders on complaints. The court directed that journalists have various safeguards under the Working Journalists and Other Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1955 (Working Journalists Act), therefore can avail the machinery for a dispute under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (ID Act).

The working journalists contended that they are entitled to the benefits of both the Working Journalists Act and the MRTU & PULP Act, as the former Act incorporates the provisions of the ID Act for working journalists as they apply to workmen, and the latter Act adopts the same definition of workman. However, the division bench observed, "Working journalists constitute a distinct class with unique privileges and protections in their employment.

This recognition of special status, distinct from other workmen, has been upheld based on the premise that working journalists form a separate category". The Court said that the disputes concerning working journalists can be settled by opting for mechanisms laid down in the Industrial Disputes Act, Bar and Bench reported.

The petition was filed by journalists, Devendra Pratap Singh (working in Pioneer Book newspaper establishment) and Indrakumar Jain (journalist in Dainik Bhaskar) and the management of Dainik Bhaskar. The petitions were filed before the High Court after industrial courts rejected complaints filed by the working journalists on the ground that working journalists did not fall within the term of "employee" or "workman" under the MRTU Act.Mileston