RAMVILAS AGRAWAL Vs. YOGESH KUMAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Invoking jurisdiction of this Court under Section 482 of the Cr.P.C., the present petition has been filed seeking quashment/setting aside of the impugned order dated 11/09/2019 (Annexure P/1) passed by the revisional Court affirming the order dated 26/12/2017 (Annexure P/2) passed by the Judicial Magistrate First Class, Nagri, District Dhamtari taking cognizance of offence under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code ('IPC' for short) against the petitioner.

(2.) The aforesaid challenge has been laid on the following factual backdrop :-

(3.) Reply has been filed on behalf of respondent No. 1/complainant stating inter alia that it is well established law that not only the person who publishes a libel of it, but a person who in any way contributes to making a libel is also responsible for it. It has further been stated that petitioner, being the Bureau Chief of the newspaper 'Dainaik Haribhoomi' which published the defamatory article, is liable for defamation caused against the respondent No. 1/complainant. In addition, it has also been stated that petitioner is seeking quashment of proceeding on hyper technical ground under Section 7 of the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867 (the 'Act of 1867' for short) read with Rule 8 of Registration of Newspapers (Central) Rules, 1956 where it is apparent that the petitioner, being the Bureau Chief, is responsible for the defamatory article published against respondent No. 1/complainant, as such, the present petition deserves to be dismissed.