(1) A periodical shall be printed or published in India only in accordance with the provisions of this Act.
(2) Every publisher of a periodical shall, with the authorisation of the owner of such periodical, obtain a certificate of registration from the Press Registrar General by making an online application to the Press Registrar General and the specified authority within whose local jurisdiction such periodical is proposed to be published, in such manner and on payment of such fee, with such documents and particulars, as may be prescribed.
(3) The application referred to in sub-section (2) shall contain the title, which the publisher intends to assign to the periodical, and for that purpose the publisher may suggest one or more names for the title, in an order of preference, which is not the same or similar to a title already held by any other owner of a periodical either in the same language anywhere in India or in any other language in the same State, and which conforms to the guidelines made by the Press Registrar General for this purpose.
(4) The specified authority referred to in sub-section (2) shall, either furnish its no-objection or comments on the application to the Press Registrar General within a period of sixty days:
Provided that no-objection of the specified authority shall not be required, where the application referred to in sub-section (2) is for registration of a periodical proposed to be published by the Central Government or a State Government or any authority under such Government.
(5) On receipt of an application referred to in sub-section (2), if the Press Registrar General is satisfied with its correctness and completeness and after taking into account the comments, if any, received from the specified authority within the period referred to in sub-section (4) and the guidelines relating to admissibility of titles, he shall issue a certificate of registration containing particulars of its periodicity, language, place of publication, details of the owner and the title of the periodical, in such form as may be prescribed:
Provided that the Press Registrar General may, after giving an opportunity of being heard and for reasons to be recorded in writing, refuse to issue the certificate of registration.
(6) The publisher of the periodical shall, on receipt of the certificate of registration, commence publication of the periodical:
Provided that if the publisher of the periodical fails to publish the periodical within twelve months from the end of the month in which the certificate of registration was issued, the Press Registrar General may cancel the certificate of registration and withdraw the title.