SUBHASH K SHAH Vs. K SHANKAR BHAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Criminal Revision Petition is filed by the petitioner who was the complainant in the trial Court under Ss. 397 and 401, Cr. P.C. to enhance the sentence awarded by the Principal Munsiff and J.M.F.C. Mangalore, to the respondent in C.C. No. 1661 of 1986 dated 4-10-1990.

(2.) I have heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned counsel for the respondent fully and perused the records of the case.

(3.) The facts of the prosecution case are as follows :- That in the year 1985 the petitioner-complainant was working as Superintendent of Excise, Dakshina Kannada, Mangalore. He alleged that he hails from a very highly respectable, educated and business family of Gokak in the District of Belgaum. He was a Class I Officer in the Karnataka Excise Department. The respondent was the Editor, Printer and Publisher of Kannada Weekly called "Amrit Kannad Vara Patrike", at Golikatta Bazar, Bunder, Mangalore-1. The respondent published an article in his paper "Amrit Kannada Vara Patrike" dated 28-7-1985 making defamatory allegations against the petitioner. Therefore, he filed a complaint. The learned Magistrate, after assessing the evidence on record and after hearing both sides convicted the respondent u/S. 255(2), Cr. P.C. of the offence punishable under S. 501, IPC and sentenced him to pay a fine of Rs. 1,000/- in default to undergo simple imprisonment for a period of two months. So far as the conviction of the respondent for the offence under S. 501, IPC is concerned, the respondent has not preferred any appeal against the same. Therefore, the conviction is not liable to be disturbed. It is the petitioner who was the complainant in the trial Court and who is aggrieved by the sentence awarded to the respondent on the ground that it is very lenient has preferred this Revision Petition.