W.Broome, J. - (1.)THIS writ petition filed by a firm of publishers challenges an amendment of the Regulations of the Board of High School and Intermediate Examination, U. P., introduced by a Gazette notification dated 9- 6-1959 issued under Section 15 of the Intermediate Education Act, declaring that copyright of the question papers set at examinations conducted by the Board shall vest in the Board and forbidding the publication of such question papers without the Board's permission, which will be granted only if the publisher pays a fee of Rs. 5 for each paper and undertakes not to include in his publication any solutions of the questions.
(2.)MR . S. C. Khare, who appears for the petitioner, has made the following submissions:
1. The new regulation introduced by means of the impugned notification is beyond the scope of the regulation-making power of the Board under Section 15 of the Intermediate Education Act. 2. No copyright can be claimed in question papers set for examinations because they are not "original literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works", and therefore do not come within the purview of Section 13 of the Indian Copyright Act, 1957. 3. Even if there is any copyright in such a question paper, it belongs to the author (i.e. the person setting the paper) by virtue of Section 17 of the Indian Copyright Act, 1957, and does not belong to the Board.

I cannot agree that the impugned notification travels beyond the scope of Section 15 of the Intermediate Education Act. Under Section 7 of the Act the Board of High School and Intermediate Education has been given the power to conduct examinations at the end of High School and Intermediate courses, and this will necessarily include the power to arrange for the preparation and disposal of question papers. The Board is further empowered by the same section "to do all such other acts and things as may be requisite in order to further the objects of the Board as a body constituted for regulating and supervising High School and Intermediate Education." And under Section 15 of the Act "the Board may make regulations for the purpose of carrying into effect the provisions of this Act." The impugned regulation, which seeks to prevent unauthorised use of the question papers set for the Board's examinations, clearly deals with a matter ancillary to the conduct of examinations and the regulation and supervision of High School and Intermediate Education; and consequently if: falls within the ambit of the powers conferred by Section 15 of the Act. Mr. Khare argues that it travels outside the scope of Section 15 and encroaches on other fields viz. the subject of copyright and the trade or business of publishers. But the primary object of the notification, as revealed by the counter-affidavit filed in this case, is to prevent the publication of question papers along with solutions, such publication being, according to the Board, "detrimental to the maintenance of proper standard of teaching and discipline"; and the circumstance that the notification incidentally happens to deal with the subject of copyright and to affect the business of publishers will not be sufficient to render it invalid. Mere incidental results of this nature cannot affect the validity of the notification when its main aim and object is covered by the provisions of the Act under which it has been issued. In my view therefore the impugned regulation cannot be held to fall outside the scope of Section 15 of the Intermediate Education Act.

(3.)A subsidiary argument advanced in this connection is that the notification is bad because it attempts to legislate on the subject of copyright, which is a Central subject (item 49 of the Union List in the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution). But the determination of this question depends on whether the notification purports to introduce any change in the existing law of copyright, as embodied in the Indian Copyright Act, 1957, or whether it merely acts within the framework of the existing law. If under the law as it stands the Board is not the owner of the copyright in question papers set for its examinations--a point which will have to be considered in detail when dealing with the third submission of Mr. Khare--it can certainly be argued that the impugned notification changes the law by declaring that copyright vests in the Board. But assuming for the time being that under the existing law the Board is the owner of the copyright in such papers, the notification cannot be held to introduce any change; it merely makes a declaration of the Board's legal right and then goes on to make provision for assignment of the copyright, in conformity with the provisions of Section 18 of the Copyright Act.