Criminal Miscellaneous Case No. 2715 of 1996 has been filed by one Mr. N. Ram, Editor, Frontline Biweekly and Criminal Miscellaneous Case No. 2564 of 1997 has been filed by Mr. T. S. Subramanyan and Mr. S. Rangarajan, who are the Columnist, and Printer and Publisher of the Frontline Bi-weekly respectively and all the three are the accused in the complaint in C.C. No. 111 of 1996 on the file of the Judicial First Class Magistrate, Trivandrum, filed by Mr. Siby Mathew, I.P.S., the then Deputy Director General of Police, Trivandrum, under Sections 500, 501 and 502 read with Section 34, IPC. Now, the present Miscellaneous Cases have been filed to quash the above said complaint, under Section 482, Cr.P.C.

2. The facts as narrated by the learned counsel appearing for the petitioners and the learned counsel appearing for the first-respondent complainant for appreciating their respective contentions can be briefly stated hereunder : A case was registered in Crime No. 225 of 1994 on 20-10-1994 in the Vanchiyoor Police Station regarding the overstay of two ladies, namely Fauziya Hassan and Mariam Rasheeda, who hailed from Maldives and during the investigation of the said case the