RNI stands for Registrar of Newspaper for India and it is mandatory to register with RNI in India if you are involved with publications of the newspaper, periodicals or even books. All of these things are regulated by the Press and Books Registration Act of 1867. This is the same act which leads to the creation of the RNI.
If you are also involved in a business related to the publications of such material or if you are planning to enter any such business then you must get the RNI registration done before you open your business for the public.
Most of the people visit their lawyer to check the details about such registrations and they pay a lot of fee to for getting this information but today, in this article, we are going to provide you all the information free of cost.
So, let us start a brief information about RNI and then we will talk about the documents required and the process of RNI Registration.
RNI Registration and Other Details
We have already shared the full-form of RNI and we have also told you that it is mandatory to get the RNI registration to go ahead with the publication of the periodical. This registration needs to be obtained from the Registrar of Newspaper and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Controls are responsible for this.
There are three major functions performed by RNI and these are majorly,
- Issuance of Registration Certificate for Newspaper
- Maintenance of RNI Database
- Verification of Circulation Claims
This was all the possible information about RNI. Let us now look at the types of documents that are required for RNI Registration.
Documents Required for RNI Registration
In this section, we have listed the details of the basic documents which are required for RNI Registration. You might need some additional documents depending on your case and you must refer to RNI for more details on this. The general documents are
- Declaration from Publisher
- Form 1
- Letter Issued by RNI
- Agreement Details between Owner of Periodical and Owner of Printing Press
- Details of First Issue of the periodical
- Copy of the first issue of the periodical
- Printer agreement
- Details of the publisher along with the ID proof
- Address Proof
Process for RNI Registration
The process for RNI Registration is quite a long one so to make it easy for you to understand the process, we have divided this section into multiple sub-steps. This way, you will be able to understand the process and go ahead with RNI Registration without an issue
Step 1 – Sharing Details of Title for Periodical
It should be noted that it is mandatory for you to provide the details of the periodical. This includes the details like the name of the newspaper and other such information. This also ensures that there is no deviation in future and the approval of District Magistrate is provided on basis of the details provided in this step. The details that you would be needed here are
– Complete Name of the Newspaper or Periodical
– Details of the owner including the name
– The language being used for publication
– The frequency of the publication
– Area of distribution of the periodical
All this information should be submitted along with the completely filled form. The form is to be submitted to the District Magistrate.
Step 2 – Verification of the Details
In this step, the district magistrate will verify all the details that have been provided by you. After the verification of the details, the application form will be forwarded to the RNI and once that is done, the RNI will issue you a letter of verification. This would also provide you with a confirmation if the title for the publication is available or not. If in case, the title is not available, you will have to choose a new title.
Once that is done, you will be asked to submit another declaration and the form can be obtained from RNI. Fill in the form and provide the declaration.
Step 3 – Validation of Declaration Submitted
You are now one step away from the final step and in this step, you will have to present the declaration to the District Magistrate once again. You can only share the details here once the declaration has been validated by RNI. It should be noted that two different declarations will be required if the publisher is different from the owner of the printing press.
Step 4 – Publication
As per the rules and regulations, you need to publish the first copy of the periodical. The time frame for this is 42 days and this means that you need to get the first copy published within 42 days since the completion of Step 3. This time frame is true for the periodicals where the frequency is daily or weekly. If the frequency is lower then the time frame is 90 days.
If you are not able to publish the periodical in the given time then you would be liable to file another declaration form. This would have to be done before you publish the periodical. Also, the time frame will remain the same again.
Once the first issue of the periodical is published, the certificate of the registration will be issued. This takes about 2 weeks of time and it is only issued after the verification is complete. You must note that there are many criteria for the verification. Also, you would need to have a copy of a declaration from the Magistrate to get the RNI. One of the critical criteria remains to be the initial information submitted by you. There should be less or almost no variation in the language, distribution area and the title of the publication. Any variation might stall the process for you and you might not get the RNI Registration certificate.
These were all the details about RNI. The process is easy to follow and you should not face any issues. In case of a problem, feel free to escalate the issue and get the resolution.
Santosh Kumar is a Professional SEO and Blogger, With the help of this blog he is trying to share top 10 lists, facts, entertainment news from India and all around the world.