JUDGMENT :

Rajnesh Oswal, J.-

CRMC No.224/2013

1. The petitioners have filed the present petition for quashing the proceedings arising out of the criminal complaint titled “Ch. Lal Singh vs. Mohinder Verma and others” under sections 500, 501, 502, 504, 506 and 120-B RPC pending before the court of learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Kathua (hereinafter to be referred as the trial court) and also the order dated 09.07.2013 by virtue of which the learned trial court has issued the process against the petitioners for commission of offences under sections 501 and 502 RPC.

2. It is stated that the respondent filed a false and frivolous baseless complaint against the petitioners alleging therein that the petitioners published news items in the newspaper’s edition dated 09.03.2013 and 26.04.2013 against the respondent. The learned trial court by the impugned order dated 09.07.2013, after recording the statement of the respondent and one witness, namely, Jatinder Singh, issued the process against the petitioners for commission of offences under sections 501 and 502 RPC. It is further stated that a PIL bearing number WPPIL No. 19 of 2011, was initially filed against the daughters of Taj Mohi-ud-Din and in the said PIL, an application came to be filed by Prof S. K. Bhalla regarding the illegal and unauthorised possession of the respondent over the land, that was registered as CMA No. 276 of 2012. The Division Bench passed the orders from time to time and the same used to be carried by all the newspapers in the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir. During the pendency of the said PIL, then MLA Kathua, Sh. Charanjit Singh filed another application bearing CMA No. 597 of 2013 and prayed for permitting him to intervene in the said matter and place on record the facts those were within his knowledge, particularly the manner in which the honest and dedicated officer i.e. the then Assistant Commissioner (Revenue), Kathua was got transferred prematurely. The Hon’ble Division Bench Court passed the orders on 08.03.2013 and another order on 25.04.2013, which were carried in the newspapers on the next day.

3. The petitioners have filed the present petition for quashing the criminal proceedings of the above title complaint as well as the order of issuance of process, on the following grounds:

a. That from the perusal of the order, the complainant and the pre-summoning statement, no offences under sections 501 and 502 RPC are made out.

b. That it was obligatory for the trial court to go through the contents of the newspaper and sanctity of the orders passed by the Hon’ble Division Bench dated 08.03.2013 and 25.04.2013 and was also required to see the import of the orders passed by the Hon’ble Division Bench and thereafter apply its mind and consider the contents of complaint, which from the bare perusal of the order, the trial court has not done and has issued a process in a casual and mechanical manner.

c. That from a bare perusal of the news item, no derogatory/defamatory news has been published against the respondent and the complaint is hit by section 198-B (1) Cr.P.C, as the learned Magistrate did not have jurisdiction to take cognizance of an alleged offence of defamation in respect of public servant.

d. That no case is made out against the petitioners, they have been falsely implicated by the respondent only to harass, pressurise the petitioners to stop publishing the court orders passed in WPPIL No. 19/2011 and CMA No. 276/2012.

4. Mr. Ved Raj Wazir, learned senior counsel has vehemently argued that the learned trial court has issued the process against the petitioners in a mechanical manner and without even perusing the contents of the complaint. He further argued that the petitioners published the contents of the applications those were filed by the applicants, namely, Prof S.K. Bhalla and MLA Charanjit Singh but the respondent did not take any action against the said applicants. He further argued that petitioners are not guilty of committi