INDRAJIT LANKESH Vs. K.T. DHANU KUMAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted. This appeal is filed by the appellant, who feels aggrieved by the order dated 13-1-2012 passed by the High Court of Karnataka in Indrajit Lankesh v. K.T. Dhanu Kumar, 2012 SCC OnLine Kar 1096 that was preferred by him. The said petition was filed by the appellant under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 praying to set aside the orders dated 17-1-2009 passed by the Civil Judge (Junior Division)-cum-Judicial First Class Magistrate, Mandya in Complaint Case No. 3 of 2009. Vide the said orders, the learned Magistrate had taken cognizance of the complaint preferred by the respondent herein under Section 500 of the Penal Code, 1860. The appellant sought quashing of the proceedings in the said criminal complaint but the High Court has dismissed the petition of the appellant vide the impugned order1. That is how the appellant is before us in the present appeal.

(2.) To state the facts in brief: the respondent has filed a criminal complaint under Section 500 IPC alleging that there is an offence of criminal defamation committed by certain persons inasmuch as in the publication titled Lankesh Patrike dated 25-12-2008, a defamatory article is published against the complainant. The complainant has arrayed the editor, etc. of the publication as accused persons, In addition, the appellant has also been implicated as Accused 2 on the ground that he is the proprietor of the said publication Lankesh Patrike.

(3.) The submission of the appellant in the High Court was that by virtue of Section 7 of the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867 (for short "the Act"), protection is afforded to the proprietor of the publication and, therefore, he could not have been implicated in the said complaint. Section 7 reads as under: