O P LAMBA Vs. TARUN MEHTA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The top brass of the Tribune, a well known English daily newspaper of this region, is accused of offences under S. 292/293 read with S. 34 of the Penal Code on account of the publication of an advertisement regarding an English picture "Together with Love" being screened at Nirman Theatre, Sector 32, Chandigarh. It was published at page 9 of the issue dt. April 21, 1986. There are two captions to this picture which read "Most Intimate Scenes Ever Filmed" and "Secrets of Sex American Style". Petitioner 1 Mr. O.P. Lamba is the Printer and Publisher of the paper, No. 2 Shri S.D. Bhambri is the General Manager and No. 3 Shri Prem Bhatia is a former Editor-in-Chief and presently a Consultant of the Tribune. The Tribune undisputadly is being run by a charitable public trust for about 100 years by now.

(2.) The crux of the complaint filed against them by Shri Tarun Mehta. Advocate of Ambala Cantt. is that the picture printed at page 9 of the paper, as referred to above, excites impure thoughts in the minds of ordinary people of normal temperament who look at it and the two captions, appended to the picture also are likely to influence the mind of the younger generation who easily fall prey to these libidinous appeals as a result of which they are tempted to go and see the obscenely advertised picture in the cinema hall. The allegation further is that the petitioners as also the General Manager of the Nirman Theatre are guilty of printing the said obscene photo in the newspaper and the remarks thereon and have also sold the newspaper publicly with a view to put the picture into circulation and to earn profits from this business. The trial Magistrate Shri G.S. Kotla, after recording the statements of the complainant and another witness, namely. Shri Jaswant Singh, Advocate of the same place i.e. Ambala Cantt. has summoned the petitioners to stand their trial for the above-noted offences vide his impugned order dt. Aug 6, 1986. The material part of this order reads :-

(3.) The stand of Mr. Jagan Nath Kaushal, the learned Sr. counsel for the petitioners is that firstly the picture besides being vague is smudged one and hardly conveys anything; secondly the allegation that the picture is in any manner obscene and lascivious and tends to deprave or corrupt those who are likely to see is only a figment of the complainant's imagination and thirdly the advertisment in question was accepted and published by the Tribune office in the ordinary course of business without any pre-knowledge of the petitioners. He submits with some amount of vehemence that the filing of the complaint and the continuation of the proceedings against the petitioners is nothing but misuse of the process of the Court. He prays that the complaint and the resultant proceedings deserve to be quashed in exercise of inherent powers of this Court under S. 482 of the Criminal P.C. Having given my thoughtful consideration to the entire matter in the light of the submissions of the learned counsel for the parties. I see much merit in the stand of the petitioners' counsel.