The Calcutta Weekly Notes Law Notes and Notes of Cases of the Calcutta High Court and of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and Short Notes of Important Decisions of other High Courts in India Monday March 9 1936

That provision deals with the privilege of the members of the House and defines the extent of the imunity to which they are personally entitled in respect of things said or done in the legilature. [...] Our reading of the decided cases both English and Indian is that the publication of a single speech may be privileged when such publcation is caused by the maker of the speech fer the bond fide purnose of the information of his constituency [Wason v. Walrer 4 Q. B. 731; Nit when such publication is solely at the initiative of the publisher no privlege can be claimed. [...] ThiR immunity rests not on any privilege enjoyed by the House but on a common law right of idividuals: on the general adva r go to the Public of the proceedings of the legislature being made known and public opinion being freely brought to bear upon the representtives of the people in the discharge' of their public duties. [...] The other learned Judges concurred with the Chief Justice and the corclusion of the Court was that a fair and faithful report of the whole debate would not be actionable athough the publication was not at the istance of the House or of any member. [...] The book comprises the Opium Act as modified in its application to Bengal the said Act as amended by the Dangerous Drugs Act the Bombay and the Burma amendments and the Bengal Opium Smoking Act.