MUSTAFA SHAHIDUL ISLAM Vs. MD. SAFAR SIDDIQUE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this criminal petition filed under Section 482, CrPC, the petitioners are seeking the intervention of this Court to quash C.R. Case No. 518 of 2012 U/s 500/34 IPC pending against them before the learned Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Morigaon, Assam and the processes issued against them in connection therewith.

(2.) The brief facts of the case, as pleaded by the petitioners, are that in the year 2011, the selection committee of Moirabari Senior Madrassa, Morigaon District ["Madrassa" for short] had initiated the selection process for appointment to the posts of, among others, additional teacher for Social Science and accordingly issued the advertisement dated 6-1- 2011 for those posts. The Selection Committee thereafter prepared wherein one Md. Badrul Islam secured first position with the grand total marks of 193.64 while the respondent 1 secured a grand total marks of 193.08. It turned out that for various reasons, no candidate was appointed for the post. However, the authorities contemplated to initiate a fresh selection process for the said post. The respondent 1 somehow managed to know that he secured second position in the selection process and started blaming the Selection Committee and the school authorities for his fate. On 25-9-2011, a news item was published in the local newspaper, "Janasadharan" on the basis of the information given by the respondent 1 alleging, inter alia, that the petitioner No. 1, who is the Superintendent of the Madrassa cum Member of the Selection Committee, had demanded a bribe of Rs. 2 lakhs from the respondent No. 1 for appointment to the said post and that candidates were selected by unfair means. That apart, on 13-2-2012, on the basis of the information given by the respondent 1, another news item was published in "Gana Adhikar", a local newspaper, alleging, inter alia, that the petitioner No. 2 had misappropriated money for the uniforms of the students, infrastructural fund, the funds released under Sarva Shiksa Scheme for mid-day meal and construction of buildings, etc. and that Rs. 11,02,200/- was released in the joint account of the petitioner No. 1, who is the President of the Madrassa, and the petitioner No. 2, but no uniform was distributed to the students till then. It was further alleged by the respondent No. 1 that the petitioner No. 1 was partial to the said Badrulk Islam and made him the No. 1 candidate for the post of Additional Teacher of Social Science.

(3.) Aggrieved by the aforesaid news items, the petitioner No. 2 lodged a written complaint to the Chairman, Press Council of India, New Delhi against the news reporters, namely, Mehbub Hussain Mukter and Muzashhir for publishing those false and misleading news in Janasadharan in its issued dated 25-9-2011. After publication of the two mischievous news items, numerous queries and controversies started circulation in a disturbing manner from many news reporters of print media and visual media and local public. As a result, the petitioners thought it appropriate to satisfy all the concerned public by means of issuing clarificatory6-3-2012 news in the local daily, namely, "Gana Adhikar" in its issue dated 6-3-2012 explaining the manner in which Badrul Islam came to be selected and why the respondent 1 could not be selected for the post. It was stated in the news so published that the selection committee consisting of )i) the representative nominated by the Deputy Commissioner, Morigaon, (ii) the subject expert nominated by the Inspector of Schools, Morigaon (petitioner No. 1), (iii) the President of the Madrassa and (iv) the Member-Secretary of the Committee (petitioner No. 2) had suspected that the respondent 1 might have obtained marks in the examination by unfair means as he could not reasonably fare well in the viva voce test.