P JAINULABIDIN Vs. MOHAMED SYED ARIF

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioners are Publisher and Editor of a Weekly Magazine. A Private Complaint for an offence punishable under Section 500, I.P.C. was taken on file by Judicial Magistrate No.II, Karaikal. THE allegation and averments made in the Complaint are that the complainant is associated with the Tamil Nadu Development Foundation Trust, which carries out various social and educational activities for the promotion of Muslims. A publication has been made in the weekly on 06.04.2001 in which the general public has been cautioned regarding a fraudulent collection of money. It has been stated in the news item that some people are coming around to sell sticker of Babri Masjid for Rs.2/- to every door steps. Stickers are being sold under the guise of collecting fund for Babri Masjid case, Gujarat relief fund and for conducting conference for promoting Islam and therefore the people must be beware of and must be careful about those fraudulent groups.

(2.) IT has been claimed in the Complaint that this news item has been directed only against the complainant and that there is no justification for describing the sale of the stickers as fraudulent and those who sell the same as frauds. Such publication is a defamatory imputation and it refers only to the complainant and sought for prosecution of the Publisher and the Editor viz., the petitioners herein.

(3.) THE action of the petitioner will be exempted from defamation, which reads as per Section 499 as follows: