IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE OF ANDHRA PRADESH:: HYDERABAD THURSDAY, THE SEVENTEENTH DAY OF NOVEMBER TWO THOUSAND AND ELEVEN PRESENT:: HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE G.V.SEETHAPATHY CRL.P.No.7107 OF 2008 Between: Daily Munsif Urdu News Paper Rep. by its Chief Editor, Hyderabad and another …Petitioners A n d The State of A.P., Rep. by its Public Prosecutor, High Court of A.P., Hyderabad and another ..Respondents HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE G.V.SEETHAPATHY CRL.P.No.7107 OF 2008 ORDER: This criminal petition is ﬁled under Section 482 Cr.P.C for quashing further proceedings against the petitioners/A-1 and A-2 in C.C.No.1065 of 2008, on the ﬁle of the VI-Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, City Criminal Courts, Nampally, Hyderabad. 2. Heard both sides. Perused the record. 3. The second respondent herein ﬁled a complaint under Section 200 Cr.P.C., before the VI-Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, City Criminal Courts, Nampally, Hyderabad against the petitioners/ A-1 and A-2 alleging oﬀences under Sections 500 and 501 read with Section 34 IPC. According to the complainant, he is a social worker and Member of Legislative Assembly elected from Asifnagar constituency on behalf of the M.I.M Political Party, Hyderabad. The complainant pleads that he hails from a respectable family and his grandfather was founder of M.I.M party and that he has been member of the said party since the age of 18 years and is also one of the directors of Darusalam Cooperative Bank. The complainant alleges that petitioners/A-1 and A-2, in collusion with opposite parties who are politically opposed to him were trying to defame him and in the course of such process, they have published a news item in Urdu newspaper ‘The Munsif Daily’ of which A-2 is the Chief Editor, with defamatory content under the headline “Assault of goondas of Member of Assembly of local political party – 3 persons injured. The complainant would contend that in the said news item, a false imputation was made against the complainant to the eﬀect that he was responsible for the assault of one Azhar Ali Khan and two others that took place on 03.04.2008. The complainant alleges that he was in no way connected with the said incident and his name has been falsely dragged into the news item with an allegation that he was responsible for the attack. He would further plead that on a reading of the said news item he was shocked and has undergone mental trauma and he received a number of phone calls from relatives, friends, party colleagues and others expressing sympathy over the falsity of the news item. The complainant would contend that the said news item has tarnished his image and put him to shame and lowered his reputation in the eyes of the public. He would also contend that it was false and the complainant was no way concerned with the alleged incident. 4. The learned counsel for the petitioners /accused would contend that the 1st petitioner/A-1 is a reputed Urdu daily newspaper covering all local news, besides national and international news for the last four decades and on 03.04.2008 the reporters received information about a melee that occurred in Barkatpura area and rushed there and gathered news as part of their daily routine and they also recorded the statements of the police as also the victim and the same was published as a news item and the contents of the said news item were, in fact, reported to by the victim in the complaint given to the Station House Oﬃcer, Kachiguda, based on which Cr.No.87 of 2008 was registered. The petitioners would, therefore, contend that the statement comes within the exception of Section 499 IPC. 5. A perusal of the translated copy of the news item would go to show that it contains report of an incident that is stated to have taken place as furnished by the police. It is speciﬁcally stated in the said news item that the police stated about the whole incident that is said to have taken place in which three persons got injured. The details of the incident which are narrated in the said news item do not require reiteration. At the beginning of the news item it is stated that the police have narrated the incident and at the end of the news item it is stated that Yousuf Ali Khan has held Dr.Maliha, wife of Rauf and the Member of Assembly, Asifnagar Constituency as persons responsible for the said attack. There is no reference to the name of the complainant anywhere in the news item. Only at one place, it is stated that the Member of Assembly, Asifnagar Constituency also spoke to Mr.Yousuf Ali Khan and thereafter Minhaj Ahmed of Ameerpet, threatened him over phone and little later Minhaj Ahmed and 15 other goondas reached the apartment and forcibly entered the ﬂat of Azhar Ali Khan, the elder brother of Yousuf Ali Khan, and attacked him with axes and sticks. Thus, as per the news item, it was the version of the police and also the perception of Yousuf Ali Khan, the victim, that has been reported. The alleged involvement of the complainant, whose name, of course, is not mentioned in the news item in the alleged incident, is reported in the newspaper based on the version of the police and the victim. 6. The learned counsel for the respondent/complainant would contend that the heading of the news item would indicate that the complainant has engaged goondas to attack the victim. In the heading also, the name of the complainant is not referred to and what all referred therein is only “a Member of Assembly of a local political party”, even without referring to the constituency that is represented by the said Member of the Assembly. By reading the heading, there is no possibility of correlating the same to the complainant as neither his name nor his constituency is referred to therein. Even if the heading and body of the news item are read together, what all that a reasonable person can perceive is that it contained only factual report of an alleged incident as narrated by the police and the victim to the media. In exercise of the right to freedom of expression, the media is certainly entitled in a democratic set up to report any incident which comes to its notice and which is of public importance. The alleged incident of an attack with weapons resulting in injuries to three persons, is certainly a matter of public importance and the petitioner/ A-1 carried the news item as part of its daily routine. When the news item speciﬁcally mentions that it was a factual report of the incident as narrated by the police and the victim, no mala ﬁdes can be attributed to the 2nd petitioner/A-2. There could have been some force in the contention of the learned counsel for the complainant if the news items carried a suo motu report by the newspaper itself. However, the situation in the present case is diﬀerent, as the news item speciﬁcally discloses that it is the perception of the victim and the version of police that is being reported. Hence, no imputation of any bad intention on the part of the petitioners can be made while publishing the news item. The fact that the same version is disclosed in the complaint given to the police by the victim, also strengthens the contention of the petitioners that they only reported what the police have stated or the victim has narrated without adding anything by themselves. When that is so, the question of publication of the news item by the petitioners with a view to defame the complainant does not arise, as the press and the media do enjoy the right of freedom of expression in publishing news items narrating factual accounts of the events as reported to them. 7. Continuance of further proceedings against the petitioners/A-1 and A-2 in C.C.No.1065 of 2008, on the ﬁle of the VI-Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, City Criminal Courts, Nampally, Hyderabad, is certainly an abuse of process of law. It is, therefore, considered a ﬁt case where inherent powers of the Court under Section 482 Cr.P.C can be invoked to quash further proceedings in C.C.No.1065 of 2008 and they are accordingly quashed. 8. In the result, the criminal petition is allowed. ____________________ G.V.SEETHAPATHY, J 17th November, 2011 Lrkm