Supreme Court Dismisses PIL Seeking Supply Of Complete Copies Of Times Of India Newspaper To Paper Buyers

The Supreme Court today dismissed a public interest litigation seeking directions to the Union and Times of India for supply of complete copy of the daily newspaper to all paper buyers.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta passed the order, after hearing petitioner-in-person Gouri Shanker Rathore.

Briefly put, the petitioner sought a direction to the respondents for supply of complete copy of Time of India daily newspapers to all paper buyers. He further sought a restraint on the respondents "cheating" by non-supplying and/or short-supplying supplements and number of pages to paper buyers. In addition, the petitioner prayed for a direction for Times of India to donate Rs 10 crores to some needy animal shelters and such welfare schemes.

During the hearing, Justice Mehta questioned the petitioner as to how a writ was maintainable against the Times of India. "Article 12...how does a writ lie against Times of India? Is Times of India a State so that we can maintain a writ petition against it?" asked the judge.

"All you have to do is to tell your hawker to provide you all the supplements and the Sunday magazine...you can't come in Article 32", added Justice Nath. The case was accordingly dismissed.

Case Title: G.S. RATHORE(FULLL NAME GOURI SHANKER RATHORDE) Versus UNION OF INDIA AND ANR., W.P.(C) No. 127/2026