(1) An application for a licence under Section 31A to publish or communicate to the public the work or translation thereof, in any language, any unpublished work or any work published or communicated to the public and the work is withheld from the public in India, the author is dead or unknown or cannot be traced, or the owner of the copyright in such work cannot be found, shall be made by any person in Form III and shall be accompanied by the fee specified in the Second Schedule:
Provided that in case the desired author is dead such application for publication of the work can be made only if there is failure to publish the work within the time specified by the central government as provided in sub-section (6) of section 31A.
(2) Every such application shall be made in respect of one work only and in respect of translation of a work into one language only.
(3) The application other than an application under sub-section (7) of section 31A shall be accompanied by a newspaper containing the publication issued under sub- section (2) of section 31A and published in one issue of a daily newspaper in the English language having circulation in the major part of the country and where the application is for the publication of a translation in any language, in one issue of any daily newspaper in that language.
(4) If the Board is satisfied that the licence for publication or communication to the public or translation in any language of the work, applied for may be granted to the applicant, or if there are more applicants than one, to such applicants, as, in the opinion of the Board, would best serve the interest of the general public, it shall direct the Registrar of Copyrights to grant the licence accordingly.
(5) Every such licence shall be subject to the conditions provided in sub-section (7) of section 31A, and shall specify —
(a) the period within which such work shall be published, translated or communicated to the public;
(b) the price at which the copies of such work are to be sold or charges to be collected for communicating the work to the public;
(c) the amount of royalty to be deposited and the account in which it has to be deposited;
(d) in case of translation of the work, the language in which the translation shall be produced and published; and
(e) in case of communication to the public of the work the medium in which it is to be communicated to the public.
(6) The grant of every such licence shall, as soon as possible, be published in journal and on the website of the Copyright Office and the Board and a copy of the licence shall be sent to the other parties concerned.