 the young persons (harmful publications) bill, 1955o4mp libjrajf1 (as introducid in loit sabra)  the young persons (harmful publications) bill, 1955 (as introduced in lok sabra) a billto prevent the dissemination of certain publications harmful to young peron • be it enacted by parliament in the sixth year of the republic of india as follows:-1 (1) this act may be called the young persons (harmful short title, publications) act, 1955 =:e:: j (2) it extends to the whole of india except the state of jammu mcnt and kashmir (3), it shall come into force on such date as the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, appoint 2 in this act,-oefididon8 10 (a) "harmful publication" means any book, magazine pamphlet, leaflet, newspaper or other like publication which consists of stories told with the aid of pictures or without the aid of pictures or wholly in pictures, being stories portraying-(i) the commission of offences; or is (ii) acts of violence or cruelty; or  (iii) incidents of a repulsive or horrible nature; in such a way that the publication as a whole would tend to corrupt a young person into whose hands it might fall, whether by inciting or encouraging him to commit offences or acts of violence or cruelty or in any other manner whatsoever; (b) "state government", in relation to a part c state,' means the lieutenant-governor or, as the case may be, the 5 chief commissioner; (c) "young person" means a person under the age of 20 yean  3 (1) if a person-penalty for •• ale, etc, of harmful pubucatiodl (a) sells, lets to hire, distributes, publicly exhibits or in any manner puts into circulation, any harmful publication, or ic) (b) for purposes of sale, hire, distribution, public exhibition or circulation prints, makes or produces or has in his possession any harmful publication or (c) advertises or makes known by any means whatsoever that any harmful publication can be procured from or throusa is any pertlon, he shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extendto six months, or with fine, or with both -(2) on a conviction under this section, the court may order the destruction of all the copies of the harmful publication in respect of 20 which the conviction was had and which are in the custody of the court or remain in the possession or power of the person convicted ~ 4 (1) the state government may, if it is of opinion after consulta· to decjue tion with the principal law officer of the state, whether called the =~lub- ad"ocate-general or by any other name, that any publication is a 2s forfeited harmful publication, declare, by order notified in the official gazette, that every copy of such publication shall be forfeited to the government and every such notification shall state the ground for the order (2) without prejudice to the provisions contained in sub'seetion (1) of section 6, where there is an order of forfeiture under sub-30 section (1) in respect of any publication it shall be lawful for any police officer to sei%e the same wherever tound in the territories to which this act extends a~peal to 5 any person aggrieved by an 9rder of forfeiture passed by the ~l~~~r state government under section 4 may, within sixty da,rs of the 3s of fobeiture date of such order, apply to the high court to set aside such order, and upon such application the hi8h court may pa88 such order a it dhma it i (1) any police oftlcer or any other officer empowered in this power to behalf by the state government may seize any harmful publication :!!:d bmnful (2) any magi&trate of the flrli cla88 may, by warrant, authorise publicatiodl any police officer not below the rank of bub· inspector to enter and s search any place where any stock of harmful publications may be or may be reasonably suspected to be, and such police officer may seize any publication found in such place if in his opinion it is a harmful publication (3) any publication seized under 8ub-section( 1) shall be produo- 10 ~ ed, all soon as may be, before a magistrate of the ftl'lt clasa, and any publication seized under sub-section (2) shall be produced, 88 iood as may be, before the court which issued the warrant (4) if in the opinion of the magistrate or court such publiaation is a harmful publication, the magistrate or court may cause it to be is destroyed, but if, in the opinion of the magistrate or court, such publication is not a harmful publication, the magistrate or court shall dispose of it in the manner provided in sections 52!, 524 and v of 1198 525 of the code of criminal procedure, 1898 "i notwithstanding anything contained in the code of criminal offences 20 v of 1898 procedure, 1898, any o1!ence punishable under this act shall be 'ar:;c:o th~! cognizable cognizable  statement of objects and reasonspictorial and other publications containmg stories ot the glorification of crime violence and vice, known as "horror comics", are being circulated in india in large quantities the dissemination of such stories is likely to encourage anti-social tendencies among children and exert a harmful influence on young persons so far as the import into india of pictorial publications is concerned the government of india have imposed a ban under the sea customs act, 1878 (vin - of 1878) the object of this bill is to prohibit the production in india of such literature or of any variant and its circulation within india g b pant nkw dblhi; the 22nd august, 1955  a bill to prevent the dissemination of certain publications harmful to young rersons(shri gof)ind ballabh pant " minister of home affairs) 