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The Delhi High Court has recently dismissed a writ petition wherein allegations of "racial discrimination" were levelled against a press agency. The Court has held that a newspaper or agency engaged in the dissemination of news cannot be viewed as performing a public function. 

The Petitioner, one Mr. Prakash Singh, had filed a petition against the "Agence France Presse", which is a French private international news agency, alleging "racial discrimination" and "harassment" against the petitioner.

A Single judge bench of Justice Yashwant Verma, while dealing with the issue of maintainability of the writ petition itself, observed that while it may be true that the press agency has been constituted by an Act of Parliament of France, it becomes relevant to note that the newspaper or an agency engaged in the dissemination of news cannot be viewed as performing a public function. 

The court emphasised that the expression "public function" and "public duty" have been understood to be those which are akin to functions performed by the State in its sovereign capacity. The Court also noted that in the present case, contract of service between the petitioner and the second respondent could not be said to be imbued with any 'statutory flavour'.

The court reiterated the law stated in the judgement of the Supreme Court in Ramakrishna Mission & Anr. v Kago Kenya & Ors. [(2019) 16 SCC 303], where in the court has observed that "contracts of a purely private nature would not be subject to writ jurisdiction merely by reason of the fact that they are structured by statutory provisions".

The High Court thus dismissed the writ petition along with all pending applications