This revision petition has been filed by the petitioners for quashing the Complaint Case No. 983 of 1993 pending in the Court of Judicial Magistrate, Guwahati and the entire proceeding therein and also the order dated 1.6.94 passed by the said Magistrate explaining the offence under section 500/501/502 read with section 34 IPC.

2. Plea against the maintainability of the complaint in the above mentioned complaint case has been raised to the effect that person aimed against in the impugned news item is not the Brahmaputra Valley Regional Handloom Weavers' Co-operative Society Ltd. but the Managing Director Mr. Jagannath Sarma. and that as the Managing Director Mr. Sarma did not file the complaint as the person aggrieved, the defamation case filed at the instance of the co-operative society is not maintainable.

3. The five petitioners, namely, petitioner No. 1 Homen Borgohain is the Editor of Asom Bani, an Assamese Weekly, petitioner Nos. 2, 3 and 4 PG Baruah, Binu Baruah and Surajit Govinda Baruah are the partners of M/s Asom Bani and petitioner No.5 Hari Chandra Bora is the Printer and Publisher of Asom Bani.

4. Complainant opposite party, namely, The Brahmaputra Valley Regional Handloom Weavers Co-operative Society Ltd. represented by its PRO Shri Prabhat Chandra Sarma, is a co-operative society under Assam Co-operative S.ocieties Act, 1949 and engaged in manufacturing Cloth Production Scheme under the State Level Implementation Committee (SLIC). The Managing Director of the complainant society is Shri Jagannath Sarma.

5. The opposite party as complainant filed complaint case as mentioned above under section 500/501/502 read with section 34 of the IPC alleging defamation by virtue of a news item published in the said Assamese weekly Asom Bani dated 3.9.93 in the column "Dispur Darshan" under the caption "Choror Murat Tel" (Oil on the head of the thief). The complainant felt humiliated and aggrieved as the news item tarnished the reputation of the complainant in the public eyes. The news item was published in Assamese and the English translation has been reproduced as below :

" An allegation of misappropriation of more than two hundred crores of rupees is raised against Shri Jagannalh Sarma, the Managing Director of the Brahmaputra Valley Regional Weavers' Co-operative Society. As the amount is more than two hundred crores of rupees the Chief Minister was compelled to commit in the Assembly that the matter would be enquired into through the CBI, however, no enquiry is started till today. The opposition parties also stopped raising the issue of Jagannath Sarma's corruption on the floor of the Assembly. Their mysterious silence has created various confusions in the minds of many. The big thing is that the Directorate of Handloom and Weaving, in spite of having clear proof of misappropriation of several hundred crores of ruppes, has even in this year instructed Brahmaputra Valley Co-operative Society to manufacture Janala Cloth so that several millions of rupees can he collected, h is worth saying by the elders that King's dear needs no Palanguin Carrier. "

6. On the basis of the complaint, the trial Court took cognizance and issued c process and on receipt of summons the petitioners appeared and on the date, ie, on 1.6.94, fixed for explaining the offence to the accused persons, an application was filed praying for dropping the proceedings, initiated on the complaint petition on the ground that offence of defamation under section 500/501/502 1PC has not been disclosed on the basis of the complaints and that a legal bar existed for taking cognizance thereof and continuing the proceedings under section 199(1) CrPC.

7. Mr. DK Bhattacharyya, learned counsel for the petitioners mainly advanced his arguments insisting that, inline news item no materials appear which can be considered to be an imputation of defamation against the complainant society, that the Managing Director Mr. J. Surma who is the actual aggrieved person has not filed any c

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