SANAT KUMAR BANERJEE Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) WHETHER defamation of a religious preceptor or the religious head of a community amounts to defamation of his unspecified disciplines or devotees so as to bring them within the category of "some person aggrieved" making them thereby legally competent under section 199 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to sot the criminal law in motion against the offender, is the main question raised in these two Criminal Revision Cases being nos. 2028 of 1981 and 2029 of 1981.

(2.) THE petitioner is Sanat Kumar Banerjee in both the cases and he has come up before this Court in revision for Quashing the criminal proceedings pending against him under sections 500, 501 and 502 of the Indian Penal Code: one before' the learned Judicial Magistrate at barrackpore in the District of 24-Parganas and the other before the learned sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate, Burdwan. The proceeding pending before the learned Judicial Magistrate at Barrackpore is on the complaint of one Kalpana Sengupta, being Case No. C/844/ 80-T/181/80 and the other pending before the learned Sub-Divisional Judicial magistrate, Burdwan is on the complaint of one Chandan Mitra, being base no. 851 of 1980.

(3.) THE complainants as devotees of Sri sri Balak Brahmachari filed the petitions of complaint on the allegation that they were seriously aggrieved by an article written by the petitioner Sanat kumar Banerjee in the 15th Agrahayana, 1387 B. S. issue of 'swastika', a Bengali weekly edited by him, which is highly defamatory of their spiritual head, the said Brahmachari.