(1)	This Act may be called the Delivery of Books 'and Newspapers'* (Public Libraries) Act, 1954.
(2)	It extends to the whole of India including the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

 

(a)	"book" includes every volume, part or division of a volume and pamphlet, in any language, and every sheet of music, map, chart or plan separately printed or lithographed, but does not include a news paper published in conformity with the provisions of Section 5 of the Press and Registration of Book Act, 1867 (XXV of 1867);
(aa)	"newspaper" means any printed periodical work containing public news or comments or public news published in conformity with the provisions of Section 5 of the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867;
(b)	"Public libraries" means the National Library at Calcutta and any three other libraries which may be specified by the Central Government in this behalf by notification in the Official Gazette.

(1)	Subject to any rules that may be made under this Act, but without prejudice to the provisions contained in Section 9 of the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867 (XXV of 1867), the publisher of every book published in the territories to which this Act extends after the commencement of this Act shall, notwithstanding any agreement to the contrary, deliver at his own expense a copy of the book to the National Library at Calcutta and one such copy to each of the other three public libraries within thirty days from the date of its publication.
(2)	The copy delivered to the National Library shall be a copy of the whole book with all maps and illustrations belonging thereto, finished and coloured in the same manner as the best copies of the same, and shall be bound, sewed or stitched together, and on the best paper on which any copy of the book is printed.
(3)	The copy delivered to any other public library shall be on the paper on which the largest number of copies of the book is printed for sale, and shall be in the like condition as the books prepared for sale.
(3A)	"Delivery of newspapers to public libraries : Subject to any rules that may be made under this Act, but without prejudice to the provisions contained in the Press and Registration of Books Act. but 1867, the publisher of every newspaper, published in the territories to which this Act extends, shall deliver at his own expense one copy of each issue of such newspaper as soon as it is published to each such public library as may be notified in this behalf by the Central Government in the Official Gazette." *
(4)	Nothing contained in sub-section (1) shall apply to any second or subsequent edition of a book in which edition, no additions or alterations either in the letter-press or in the maps, book prints or other engravings belonging to the book have been made, and a copy of the first or some preceding edition of which book has been delivered under this act.

 

The person in charge of a public library (whether called librarian or by any other name) or any other person authorised by him in this behalf to whom a copy of a book is delivered under section 3 shall give to the publisher a receipt in writing therefore.

 

Any publisher who contravenes any provision of this Act or of any rule made thereunder shall be punishable with fine which may extend to fifty rupees and, "if the contravention is in respect of a book, shall also be punishable with fine which shall be equivalent to"1 the value of the book, and the court trying the offence may direct that the whole or any part of the fine realised from him shall be paid, by way of compensation to the public library to which the book or "newspaper"1 as the case may be ought to have been delivered.

 

(1)	No court shall take cognizance of any offence punishable under this Act save on complaint made by an officer empowered in this behalf by the Central Government by a general or special Order.
(2)	No court inferior to that of a presidency magistrate or a magistrate of the first class shall try any offence punishable under this Act.

 

"This Act shall also apply to books and newspapers published by or under the authority of the Government but shall not apply to books meant for official use only."*

 

The Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, make rules to carry out the purposes of this Act.

 

 This stately mansion with its varied facade evolved from out of the fancies of a number of distinguished owners whose names have made history.

Though not exemplifying a pure form of architecture (Italian renaissance overlaid on an ordinary Anglo-Indian Building) it is pleasing to the eye in its pleasant setting of venerable trees and lawns. To trace it back through successive ownership to a definite origin is not possible because of scanty records. The earliest name associated with this building was that of Mir Jaffar Ali Khan, the Nawab Nazim of Murshidabad. It was only natural that Alipore was named after him. A C Campbell in his Glimpses of Bengal has a lot to say about Lord Clive having had something to do with Belvedere by virtue of Emperor Shah Alam's Jagir Sanad... We learn from Sir W W Hunter in his Statistical Account of Bengal that 'Belvedere House was a favourite residence of Warren Hastings...' Lt Col Tolly sold the property by public auction, and for this piece of information we have the sober evidence of the auction notice in the Calcutta Gazette of 25 February 1802, describing 'Belvedere' as a 'large commodious, well-known house ... with 72 bighas, 8 cottahs and 4 chittacks of land, more or less' ...

The Commander-in-Chief of India, Sir Edward Paget, KCB occupied this mansion after February 1825. Then an Advocate General of Bengal (from 1846-1849 and again from 1852-1855) had the house repaired, and after an intermediate change of ownership, the Prinsep family bought it back and later sold it to the East India Company in 1854 to enable them to house the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, Sir James Halliday, during 1857-1859. A lot of face lifting was done to this building by the successive Lieutenant Governors starting from Sir William Grey and ending with Lord Willingdon, the last of the British Proconsuls. From 1864 well into the beginning of the twentieth century, there was a period of hectic additions, alterations, demolitions and magnifications, for all of which grandiloquent enterprises we are the present heirs.

For those who are anxious to fill in this outline with details of name, place, date and description, one must refer to H E Busteed's Echoes from Old Calcutta, A C Campbell's Glimpses of Bengal, H E A Cotton's Calcutta Old and New, an article in the Calcutta Review, December 1852 by the Rev James Long entitled Calcutta in the Olden Time and Sir W W Hunter's Statistical Account of Bengal (1875-1877) etc.

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