N RAM Vs. ZIA UL REHMAN KHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) PETITIONER through this petition under Section 561a Cr. P. C. seeks quashment of complaint filed by respondent under Section 153 RPC before the court of learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Srinagar. He further seeks quashment of order passed by the learned CJM Srinagar on the complaint of the respondent, whereby cognizance has been taken by learned trial court and process issued against the petitioner.

(2.) TO appreciate the controversy in the present case, factual background in the case is required to be noticed. The petitioner is a journalist of repute and is the Editor of a magazine "front Line" which has mass cir-culation in the country. He has been conferred with prestigious award "padma bhushan" for his excellence in the field of journalism. Petitioner further submitted that he was never Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper "the Hindu" which is printed and published from Madras.

(3.) THAT a complaint came to be filed by the complainant/respondent in the Court of learned CJM, Srinagar under Section 153 r. P. C alleging therein that the petitioner had committed an offence under Section 153 r. P. C. by publishing a feature in the newspaper 'the Hindu' which had hurt the religious sentiments of the complainant in particular and the Muslim community in general. It was further alleged in the complaint that upon publication of aforementioned feature in the newspaper, there were wide spread riots in different parts of Srinagar city on 30. 10. 2001 and people had to come on streets shouting slogans against the publication and asking action against the accused. It was further alleged in the complaint that the police had to resort to tear-gas shelling to control the situation which resulted into injuries to a number of people. That a reference in particular to the report published in the Daily Kashmir Times in its publication dated 26. 11. 2001 was that there were violent demonstrations especially in the Regional Engineering College, srinagar and the Kashmir University and the police had to use batons and lobbed smoke shells to disperse the mob. It was further stated in the said report that students pelted stone on the police and an additional force was deployed in the campus to prevent further disturbance.