SARDAR BHAGAT SINGH AKALI Vs. LACHMAN SINGH AKALI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The complainant in a case under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code against the present respondent and one Giani Bichittar Singh filed this appeal with the special leave of the Court under Section 417 (3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure against the acquittal of the respondent in that case The respondent was the owner of a journal in Gurmukhi language named Nabi Probhat while the co-accused in the case Giani Bichittar Singh was the editor, printer and publishei thereof. In two issues of that journal dated October 1 and October 6 1964 respectively the journal published two editorials containing defamatory statements about the complainant which formed the basis of the charge framed against both the accused persons.

(2.) The defence of the present respondent, as it-appears from his statement under Section 342 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, was that the editorial was written by the editor and that he had no guilt in the matter. He alleged that he had been impleaded in the case as the result of rivalry between two factions and that he has been the victim of that rivalry over control of the journal. The defence of the co-accused was a plea of justification.

(3.) The learned magistrate found on evidence that the statement was defamatory, that it was published with intent to injure the reputation of the complainant and that the co-accused Bichittar Singh was guilty as editor, printer and publisher for publishing that scurrilous statement. So far as the present respondent is concerned, the learned magistrate found that evidence has not proved that this accused had supplied information or direction to the other accused to publish the editorial or that he gave any directive in the matter of the publication thereof. On this finding, he acquitted the present respondent and it is the propriety of that acquittal which is challenged in this appeal.