New Delhi: The Supreme Court has decided to examine whether the printer and publisher of a newspaper or journal can be held liable for criminal defamation, if the editor has already been roped in as accused in a complaint.
A bench of Justices P Sathasivam and J Chelameswar felt it was an important question of law which needs to be examined by it.
“The important question arises, namely, if, in a case of complaint under Section 499, 500 and 506 of Indian Penal Code, the ‘publisher’ of a newspaper is a necessary party in the said proceedings apart from ‘editor’ who has been shown as one of the accused,” the bench said, framing the issue to be examined.
The bench’s order came on a plea by a Punjab Kesari reporter, Dal Singh Roherian, challenging the exclusion of the publisher of Dainik Baskar newspaper by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in a defamation case filed by him.
The High Court had quashed the summons issued to the publisher on the ground that he was not a necessary party as the editor had already been cited as an accused in the defamation complaint filed under Sections 499 (criminal defamation), 500 (punishment for criminal defamation) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC. Roherian, a reporter with Punjab Kesari, was aggrieved by publication of allegedly a “defamatory” news against him by Dainik Bhaskar.
He alleged the news item was published with malafide intention to harm his reputation and to lower his image. On his complaint, the Kaithal judicial magistrate had issued summons to three persons including printer-cum-publisher Ramesh Chand Aggarwal.
After the sessions court declined to interfere with the order, the publisher filed a revision petition and the Punjab and Haryana High Court set aside the summons issued to him by the lower court. (PTI)