JUDGMENT :

“Those who fill a public position must not be too thin skinned in reference to comments made upon them. It would often happen that observations would be made upon public men which they know from the bottom of their hearts were underserved and unjust; yet they must bear with them and submit to be misunderstood for a time.”

(Per Cock Burn, CJ, in Seymour V. Butten worth (1862) 3 F&F 372)

“Whoever fills a public position renders himself open thereto. He must accept an attack as a necessary, though unpleasant, appendage to his office.”

(Per Bramewll, B in Kelly V. Sherlock, (1866) LRIQB, 689)

1. Petitioners have challenged the complaint filed by the respondent against them before the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Srinagar, alleging commission of offences under Section 499 and 500 RPC, as also the order dated 27.12.2018 passed by the said Magistrate whereby cognizance of the offences has been taken and process has been issued against the petitioners. They have also challenged order dated 23rd February, 2019 passed by learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Srinagar, whereby bailable warrants for securing attendance of the petitioners have been issued.

2. Petitioner No.3 happens to be the Editor-in-Chief of the news channels Republic TV and Republic Bharat/R. Bharat and Managing Director of ARG Outlier Media Asianet News Pvt. Ltd. whereas petitioners No.1, 2 and 4 are associated with the aforesaid news channels.

3. It emerges from the record of the trial court that the respondent (complainant herein), a member of the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Democratic Party, who was also a member of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly besides being leader of the Legislative Party, JKPDP at the relevant time, filed a complaint against the petitioners (accused hereinafter) before the Court of learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Srinagar. In the complaint it was alleged that on July 4th, 2018, the news channel of petitioner No.3 broadcast a defamatory and malicious news segment against the complainant following a letter dated June 21st, 2018, written by one Mr. Khalid Jahangir, member of Bhartiya Janta Party and former VC of J&K Projects Construction Corporation (JKPCC), to the Governor, wherein Mr. Khalid Jahangir had leveled allegations of corruption and favouritism against a close aide of former Chief Minister of the State. According to the complainant, even though the letter did not make a mention of name of any person, yet petitioner No.3, while reporting about the said letter, deliberately and intentionally mentioned the name of complainant in connection with the allegations leveled in the aforementioned letter of Mr. Khalid Jahangir.

4. It is further alleged in the complaint that the anchors of the programme i.e., petitioners No.1 and 4, repeatedly and intentionally kept on mentioning complainant’s name in connection with the allegations made in the letter that was addressed to the Governor. The aforesaid accused persons talked about massive corruption happening in JKPCC and concluded that such alleged corruption was happening at the behest of the complainant. It is averred in the complaint that the petitioner No.2 heads and reports on the affairs related to Srinagar for the channel owned by petitioner No.3. The complainant also annexed the video of the news segment in the form of a compact disk(CD) along with his complaint.

5. According to the complainant, the accused made and published direct imputations against him and also to the political party to which he belongs with the intention to harm his reputation in the eyes of public at large. It was alleged in the complaint that though in the news segment, Mr. Khalid Jahangir, who had written letter against the complainant, did not mention the name of the complainant in the programme yet the anchors of the programme, kept on asking him about the identity of the Minister referred to in the letter and thereafter they themselves concluded that the Minister in question is the complainant.