JUDGMENT :

K.M. JOSEPH, J.

1. The appellant is the second accused in criminal complaint filed by the first respondent (hereinafter referred to as ‘complainant’, for short). The appellant filed a Petition under Section 482 The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Cr.PC’, for short), seeking to quash the order passed by the Magistrate summoning the appellant pursuant to the complaint which seeks to invoke Sections 120B, 500 and 501 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the IPC’, for short).

THE COMPLAINT

2. The complainant is a public limited company engaged in the business of manufacturing and selling asbestos cement sheets with seven manufacturing plants and more than twenty-five marketing offices all over India. It is further, inter alia, stated that the product is manufactured in all its plants in an environment friendly manner. The first accused is alleged to be the Coordinator of Ban Asbestos India, a group hosted by the appellant. Articles are regularly published in the said group. On 21.11.2008, an article was published. It was captioned “Poisoning the system: Hindustan Times”. The complaint targeted renowned