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2025 Supreme(J&K) 48
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JAMMU & KASHMIR AND LADAKH AT
RAJNESH OSWAL, J.
Rajesh Tandon - Appellant
VS.
Mohd. Safeer - Respondent
CRMC NO. 357 OF 2018, IA NO. 1 OF 2018
Decided On :
Advocate Appeared:
For the Appellant :MR. ASHISH SHARMA, ADVOCATE.
For the Respondent:MR. Z. A. QAZI, ADVOCATE.
Defamation requires specific imputation against an individual; absence of such imputation and procedural irregularities can lead to quashing of defamation complaints.
Headnote:
(A) Indian Penal Code - Section 500 - Defamation - The petitioner, a reporter, published a news article alleging misuse of an ambulance, leading to a defamation complaint by the ambulance driver. The court found no specific imputation against the petitioner, as the news did not mention him or the respondent directly. The complaint was quashed due to lack of evidence and procedural irregularities. (Paras 1-9)
(B) Criminal Procedure Code - Section 200 - The Magistrate failed to record the complainant's statement on oath, violating procedural requirements, which contributed to the quashing of the complaint. (Paras 10-11)
Facts of the case:
The petitioner reported on the misuse of an ambulance, leading to a defamation complaint by the respondent, who claimed the news harmed his reputation and led to his suspension. (Paras 1-4)
Findings of Court:
The court found no evidence of defamation, as the news item did not specifically reference the respondent or the petitioner. The complaint was quashed due to procedural lapses. (Paras 8-9)
Issues: The main issues were whether the news item contained any specific imputation against the respondent and whether the complaint was valid given the lack of evidence. (Paras 3-4)
Ratio Decidendi: The court ruled that the absence of specific allegations against the petitioner and procedural irregularities in the complaint justified quashing the proceedings. (Paras 8-9)
Result: The proceedings in the complaint titled "Mohd. Safeer vs. Rajesh Tandon" under Section 500 RPC are quashed.
JUDGMENT
1. The petitioner is a reporter of daily newspaper "Early Times‟ for District Poonch. It is stated by the petitioner that the work of the petitioner is only to provide information to the head office of "Early Times‟ situated at Gujjar Nagar, Jammu and there is one more reporter of daily newspaper "Early times‟ for District Poonch, who has been assigned the same duty of reporting the news to the head office of Early Times. On 25.04.2018, a news was published in the daily newspaper "Early Times‟ that ambulance of Surankote Hospital has been turned into load carrier and most of the times, when there is any emergency, officials of hospital say that the ambulance is unavailable but the government vehicles can be commonly seen serving the officials of the department and the people are forced to look for alternatives. The issue was raised before the CMO, Poonch and he assured that he will take appropriate action.
2. After publishing of the above-mentioned news item in the Early Times newspaper on 25.04.2018, the respondent filed a complaint under Section 500 RPC, alleging therein that the petitioner in order to defame the respondent published such a news along with photographs and moreover a video of the same was uploaded on social media, that went viral among public at large. It is further stated that the news item was published to defame the respondent in public and he was put to task by the officer of the department. He was forced to remain within the four walls, and it was very hard for him to come out under such circumstances, as there was imminent threat to the life and liberty of the respondent. It was also claimed by the respondent that he was suspended by the authority and an enquiry was initiated against him in respect of the said fake news but later he was found innocent, as the photographs and video of ambulance did not match with the ambulance of the hospital.
3. The petitioner has filed the present petition for quashing the proceedings initiated in the complaint titled “Mohd. Safeer vs. Rajesh Tandon” under Section 500 RPC pending before the JMIC, Surankote on the following grounds:
i. That there was no imputation in the news item regarding respondent.
ii. That the government hospital owns four ambulances and for each ambulance, there is separate driver and the news item was not attributed to any particular person. It is further stated that the petitioner is not the only reporter of the daily newspaper "Early Times‟ for district Poonch and it is not necessary that every news of District Poonch is published at the instance of the petitioner and further that if anybody has to avail the service of the ambulance, he has to approach the officers of the hospital and not the driver and after getting the permission, he has to deposit the charges for the service of the ambulance. The driver has no role to give permission to anybody to avail the services of the ambulance.
iii. That there are no specific allegations whatsoever against the petitioner that the petitioner was responsible for selection of the news item and no content of the news item says that the respondent was misusing the government vehicle for personal use. The news item was published at the instance of the local people of Surankote, who were being denied the services of the ambulance meant for public use.
iv. That the complaint did not contain any imputation concerning some particular person or persons, whose identity could be established and if they contain no reflection upon a particular individual or individuals but equally applied to other although belonging to the same class, and action for defamation will not lie.
4. The respondent has filed the response, stating therein that he is the driver of the only ambulance available at SDH Surankote and to defame the respondent, the petitioner got the news published in Early Times newspaper with the caption “SDH Surankote Ambulance turns Load Carrier” with a photo of the ambulance van and also circulated video on s
