The legal point established is that the director of a company leasing a press cannot be held responsible for the publication of defamatory news in a newspaper based on the provisions of the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867.

S.L. Kochar, J.

1. The petitioner has filed the aforesaid Petition under section 482, Criminal Procedure Code for quashing the proceedings against her pending before learned Judicial Magistrate, First Class Indore in Criminal Case No. 423/2004.

2. The non-applicant No. 1 Arun Jain has filed criminal complaint under section 499/500 of the Indian Penal Code against five persons named Karan Singh Panwar, Prafulla Maheshwari, the editor of daily newspaper Navbharat; Indore; Mr. Satyabhushan Sharma, Printer and Publisher of daily newspaper Navbharat, Indore, M/s Ramgopal Investments Pvt. Ltd., Navbharat Press and City Reporter Mr. Tej Kumar, daily newspaper Navbharat, Indore; alleging that Non-applicant Karan Singh Panwar gave a false news to daily newspaper Navbharat; Indore and got it published in the newspaper in the edition dated 28th July, 2001 under the heading and caption that:

Under this heading and caption, false news has been published just to defame and degrade the non-applicant/complaint intentionally in the eye of the public, his relations and colleagues.

3. In the original complaint applicant Brij Maheshwari was not arrayed as one of the accused. The complainant examined himself and his witnesses under sections 200 and 201 of the Code of Criminal Procedure before the learned Magistrate and thereafter, learned Magistrate issued process against accused Karan Singh Panwar under section 500, Indian Penal Code and against other co-accused persons under section 501(b), Indian Penal Code.

4. On 16-4-2004, non-applicant No. 1/complainant filed an application for issuance of process against applicant in place of accused No. 4 M/s Ramgopal Investments Pvt. Ltd. Navbharat Press. Learned Judicial Magistrate First Class directed the complainant to produce some documentary evidence regarding ownership of the applicant or her relations with the newspaper and fixed the case for 2-7-2004. On 2-7-2004, Non-applicant No. 1 produced Annual Report of the Company showing that the petitioner was the Director of the Company. On the basis of this, learned trial Court passed the order for the presence of the petitioner on 5-8-2004 This order was challenged in revision and the revision was partly allowed. The applicant was directed to appear before the learned Magistrate on 7-10-2004 and furnish regular bail. On failure of appearance, trial Court was directed to take necessary further legal action against the applicant.

5. The contention of the Learned Counsel for the petitioner is that even if complete allegations mentioned in the complaint and in the statements of the complainant and his witnesses recorded under sections 200 and 201, Criminal Procedure Code are taking into consideration, no case is made out for issuance of process against the petitioner or M/s Ramgopal Investments Pvt. Ltd., Navbharat Press because the said Company has leased out Printing and Publishing Work to accused Prafulla Maheshwari, the editor of daily newspaper Navbharat; Indore. He has also submitted that the applicant and M/s Ramgopal Investments Pvt. Ltd., Navbharat Press have nothing to do with the Printing and Publication of the said Newspaper and the news published therein. Learned Counsel has submitted that according to the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867 (for short, "the Act") and the declaration in Form 1, the responsibility lies only on the editor, Printers and Publishers vis-a-vis persons who supplied the news and for this purpose there is declaration printed in the newspaper dated 28th July, 2001 at page 12 that owner of the paper is M/s Ramgopal Investments Pvt. Ltd. but the press was leased out to lessee Navbharat (Bhopal) and its Printers and Publishers is Mr. Satyabhushan Sharma, Firoz Gandhi Press Complex, Indore, and its editor is Prafulla Maheshweari. Because of this specific declaration, it is crystal clear that as per Provisions under section 7 of the Act, M/s Ramgopal Investments Pvt. Ltd., and its Director Smt. Brij Maheshwari (applican