THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE SAMUDRALA GOVINDARAJULU CRIMINAL PETITION No.6746 of 2009 ORDER: The petitioner/A1 is accused of oﬀence punishable under Section 500 I.P.C. He is described as Managing Director and Chairman, Andhra Bhoomi Daily Newspaper on behalf of Deccan Chronicle Holding Limited, Secunderabad. A2 is Publisher, A3 is Editor and A4 is Reporter of Andhra Bhoomi Telugu Daily Newspaper. A2 to A4 are not parties herein. Grievance of the 2nd respondent/complainant is publication of news item in that paper on 01.01.2009 with heading “Rajiv Arogyasreelo ika akramalaku check”. For the purpose of this Criminal Petition, contents thereof may not be much relevant. 2. It is contended by the petitioner’s counsel that no where in the complaint or in sworn statement of the complainant recorded by the Magistrate, it was stated, much less attributed to A1 that he was knowing or having reason to believe that such imputation will harm the reputation of the complainant. It is only alleged that the impugned news item was published with ulterior motive to cause irreparable harm and damage to the character and reputation of the complainant. Except the said general allegation, there is no speciﬁc allegation that A1 who as the Managing Director of Deccan Chronicle Holding Private Limited, had knowledge of publication of the said news item or had any participation in selection and publication of the said news item. The petitioner’s counsel placed reliance on K.M.Mathew Vs. State of Kerala[1] of the supreme Court and Ravi Prakash Vs. J.C.Diwakar Reddy[2] of this Court. On the other hand, the 2nd respondent’s counsel placed reliance on K.M.MATHEW Vs. K.A. ABRAHAM[3] of the supreme Court. In latter K.M.MATHEW (3 supra), the supreme Court distinguished former K.M.Mathew (1 supra) on facts by saying that though presumption under the provisions of the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867 can be drawn against the editor whose name is printed in the newspaper to the eﬀect that he is the Editor of such publication and that he is responsible for selecting the matter for publication, such presumption cannot be drawn against the Chief Editor, Resident Editor or Managing Editor, nevertheless, the complainant can still allege and prove that they had knowledge and they were responsible for the publication of the defamatory news item. The supreme Court further held therein that if the presumption under Section 7 of the said Act is a rebuttable presumption and the same could be proved otherwise to the eﬀect that somebody other than Editor can also be held responsible for selecting the matter for publication in the newspaper. Therefore, it is primary requirement in a lis under Section 500 I.P.C. for the complainant to make allegation to the eﬀect that the Managing Director has responsibility for selecting the matter for publication. In the absence of such allegation, the complainant cannot maintain the complaint under Section 500 I.P.C. against the Managing Director, simply because A1 happened to be Managing Director of Deccan Chronicle Holding Private Limited, which is the publishing house of several newspapers in several languages, including Andhra Bhoomi Telugu Daily Newspaper, it cannot be either presumed or concluded that A1 had any participation in selecting the alleged defamatory publication in the newspaper on that day. As pointed out in Ravi Prakash (2 supra), criminal law does not recognize vicarious liability on the part of the employer, unless there is any special and speciﬁc provision in any statute touching criminal liability for the acts committed by the subordinates in that oﬃce or in that company. In that view of the matter, the complaint under Section 500 I.P.C. against A1, cannot be allowed to run in the lower Court as it would amount to abuse of process of criminal law. 3. In the result, the Criminal Petition is allowed quashing proceedings in CC.No.160/2009, on the ﬁle of Principal Judicial Magistrate of the First Class, Nirmal, Adilabad District, insofar as the petitioner/A1 is concerned. __________________________________ JUSTICE SAMUDRALA GOVINDARAJULU Dt:09.12.2011 ysk THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE SAMUDRALA GOVINDARAJULU CRIMINAL PETITION No.6746 of 2009 Dt 09.12.2011 ysk [1] AIR 1992 SUPREME COURT 2206 [2] 2010CriLJ2558 [3] (2002) 6 Supreme Court Cases 670