AROON PURIE Vs. H L VARMA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS petition arises out of process that was issued by the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, 5th court at Dadar, Bombay in case No. 64/s/91 against the petitioner. This process was issued by the Magistrate on a complaint filed by the first respondent alleging that the petitioner has committed an offence under section 153 read with section 114 of the Indian Penal Code.

(2.) THE complainant before the Magistrate is a practising advocate in Bombay. It is alleged in the complaint that he is a worshipper of Chhatrapati Shivaji, who was considered as an incarnation of God, sent to the earth to preserve, protect and propagate the sanatan Hindu Dharma. It is alleged that the magazine INDIA TODAY had organized a debate on the subject of secularism in 1991. In the said debate prominent personalities of different walks of life like M/s m. J. Akbar, Bipan Chandra, Sitaram Yechuri, Jawed Habeeb, swapan Dasgupta, Girilal Jain, Arun Jaitley, Ashis Nandy, khushwant Singh, Jaswant Singh were participated. Petitioner aroon Purie who had chaired the said debate in which each of the participants expressed their views about the subject secularism. In the course of debate accused No. 3 Mr. Khushwant Singh made following remarks, allegedly derogatory.

(3.) ACCORDINGLY to the petitioner, the aforesaid, remarks made by Mr. Khushwant Singh accused No. 3 has committed an offence under section 153 of the Indian Penal Code and the remarks made by the speakers in the debate had featured in the issue of INDIA TODAY published on 15-5-1991 titled as CROSS FIRE. Admittedly, the petitioner was only presiding over the debate and according to him he was only publishing the speech made by different speakers who expressed different opinions about the secularism. It is averred in the petition that the remarks made by Khushwant Singh about chhatrapathi Shivaji create a wave of opposition among the protagonist of Shivaji. In view of this Khushwant Singh had made a public apology.