JUDGMENT :

1. The present petition is directed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India and Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure against the order dated 05.01.2021 passed by learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Surat, below Exh:59 in Criminal Case No.18712/2019, whereby, the application filed under Section 311 of the Code has been rejected.

2. The facts and circumstances giving rise to this application are as under:-

(i) A defamation case under Sections 499 & 500 of the Indian Penal Code (‘IPC’ for short) filed by the applicant Purnesh Modi, who is an elected member of legislative assembly from the constituency of Surat City – 167 (west) against the respondent No.2, sitting Member of Parliament, Vynand Constituency and at the relevant time, he was President of Indian National Congress, inter alia, alleging that, during last general election held in 2019, the respondent No.2 was addressing an election rally in Kollar of Karnataka State and had allegedly made defamatory remarks with respect to Modi surname and community at large.

(ii) In the aforesaid background, the applicant filed a private complaint being Criminal Case No.18772/2019 before the Court of learned Chief Judic