Point of Law : By virtue of section 7 of PRB Act, the petitioners herein are having some responsibility for each and every statements made in the publication, irrespective of the nature of such publication.

ORDER :

1. The petitioners herein are accused Nos. 2 and 3 in C.C. No. 125/2014 on the file of the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court, Kottayam. The aforesaid case was registered against them and another person on a complaint submitted by the 1st respondent herein alleging offences punishable under Sections 500, 501 and 502 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The case of the 1st respondent in short is as follows:

The 1st petitioner herein is the Editor, and the second petitioner is the Printer and Publisher of a newspaper. On 29.6.2014 on the 3rd page of the newspaper, they published an advertisement purported to have been made by the 1st accused. The allegation is that, the aforesaid advertisement contained false and defamatory statements against the 1st respondent. The specific case of the 1st respondent is that, the aforesaid publication was made by the accused persons with the intention to harm the reputation of the 1st respondent and the said imputation was made maliciously with the sole intention to defame the 1st respondent.

2. The learned Magistrate has taken cognizance on the said complaint and the matter is now pending as C.C. No. 125/2014.

3. This Crl. M.C. is filed by the petitioners seeking to quash all further proceedings in the above case, as against the petitioners herein on the ground that, even if the contents of the complaint, which is produced as Annexure-D, are accepted in its entirety, no offences alleged against them are attracted.

4. Heard the learned counsel for the petitioners, the learned counsel for the 1st respondent and learned Public Prosecutor for the 3rd respondent.

5. The learned counsel for the petitioners contends that, the publication which is produced as Annexure-B along with this Crl. M.C. is a paid advertisement made by the 1st accused and the petitioners do not have any role in preparing the same and no responsibility as to the contents of the same can be imposed upon them. It was pointed out that, Annexure-A is the media release order in respect of the aforesaid advertisement and Annexure-C is the bill issued towards payment of charges for the publication of the said advertisement. In such circumstances, the learned counsel for the petitioners prays for quashing Annexure-D complaint and all further proceedings pursuant thereto. He relies on the judgments reported in Mammen Mathew vs. M.N. Radhakrishnan and Another, 2007 (4) KHC 502, Aman Kumar Singh vs. Tikendra Thakur, 2015 KHC 5234 : 2015 Cri. L.J. NOC 517 and an unreported judgment of this Court in W.P. (C) No. 6485/2020.

6. On the other hand, the learned counsel for the 1st respondent seriously opposes the aforesaid contention. According to the learned counsel, Section 499 of Indian Penal Code which defines the offence of defamation, does not make any distinction between an advertisement and news content. Any publication which contains defamatory statements, made with the intention to defame any person or made with the knowledge that such statement is likely to harm the reputation of another person, would attract the offence of defamation. The learned counsel relies upon the judgment in Chellappan Pillai vs. Karanjia, 1962 (2) Cri. L.J. 142, T. Venkatram Reddy vs. N. Venkata Narayana and Another, (2009) 3 ALT (Cri) 251. He also relies on a judgment rendered by the Supreme Court of United States in Elizabeth Peck vs. Tribune Company [Digest Sup. Ct. 1908]. Accordingly he prays for dismissal of the above Crl. M.C.

7. The crucial question that arises is as to whether the publication of Annexure-B which is claimed to be an advertisement attracts the offence under Sections 499 and 500 of the IPC or not. The offence of defamation is defined under Section 499 of the IPC which reads as follows:

“499. Defamation: Whoever, by words, either spoken or intended to be read, or by signs or by visible representations, makes or publishes any imputation concerning any person intending to harm, or knowing or having reason to believe that such imputation will harm, t