DEEPAL TRIVEDEE Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS petition is preferred under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 for quashment of a complaint lodged by Public Prosecutor in the City Sessions Court, Ahmedabad, bearing Criminal Case No. 3/2001, accusing the present petitioners of the offences punishable under Sections 500, 501, 502 read with Sections 114 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code.

(2.) THE event giving rise to the complaint was an item published in Ahmedabad Edition of English daily newspaper SAsian Age, on 10. 10. 2000, which read as under :-SSudarshan for RSS bureaucrat in GUJARAT. By DEEPAL TREVEDIE. Gandhinagar, Oct. 9: In a move clearly allegorizing the RSS interference in Gujarat, chief minister Keshubhai Patel has been reportedly asked by the Sangh Parivar to bypass the seniority of five IAS officers and appoint a pro-RSS man as the Chief Secretary. This, the RSS feels will help in healing the party image which has suffered a major setback following the debacle in the recently concluded local bodies' elections. Top RSS sources claimed that RSS chief K. S. Sudarshan called up the chief minister personally to recommend this pro-RSS IAS officer's case. As a sequel to it, Mr. Patel called upon Gujarat and Maharashtra RSS incharge senior Sangh leader Madhu Kulkarni here on Monday and discussed the issue. The RSS has told the Chief Minister that they want the present chief secretary Mr. L. N. S. Mukundan to be removed and Dr. V. V. R. Subbarao to be made the chief secretary. Dr. Subbarao is believed to be close to RSS and is reported to have even called upon RSS chief in New Delhi recently. According to many senior bureaucrats of late Dr. Subbarao has been citing instances of his proximity to the RSS chief. It must be noted that Gujarat which is the only State where the BJP has an absolute majority in the Assembly and a solid RSS influence. Many bureaucrats have been queuing up to the RSS offices and shibirs believing that being in good books of the RSS translated into good postings. A top RSS source told The Asian Age on Monday night that the BJP's image of giving good governance had failed to click with the people mainly because of bureaucratic hang ups. SDr. Subbarao is our man and we are sure he will help in reviving our glory But, Dr. Subbarao's appointments come against the set norms for selection. The chief secretary is normally the senior-most IAS Officer. However, in this case, there are five other ahead of Dr. Subbarao who will have been conveniently bypassed to accommodate the pro-RSS officer. The senior officers, Mr. R. Rambhadran, Mr. G. Subbarao, Mr. Ashok Bhatia, Mr. Fatehsinh Jasol and Mr. P. K. Das are all much senior to Dr. Subbarao. However, the RSS perceives that only the pro-RSS officer who is at present the home secretary of Gujarat can salvage the BJP from further go down in Gujarat. In the recently concluded district panchayat elections, the Congress grabbed 21 of the total 23 panchyats from the BJP. At taluka level the Congress captured more than 2302 out of 3848 of the seats.

(3.) THE said write-up was authored by petitioner No. 1 Deepal Trivedee. Petitioner No. 2 is the Editor-in-Chief of the said Newspaper, headquartered at New Delhi, and petitioner No. 3 is the Publisher. The petitioners are arraigned as accused in the complaint respectively. The case in the complaint is that by this write-up, Dr. Subba Rao, IAS Officer, then working with the State Government, was defamed and hence this complaint. The complaint was lodged by the Public Prosecutor, with the previous sanction of the State Government, as envisaged under Section 199 (4) of Cr. P. C.