The central legal point established is that the Managing Director's lack of control and knowledge over the publication of defamatory content absolved him from liability under the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867.

ORDER:

The present Criminal Petition is filed under Section - 482 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1973, to quash the proceedings in C.C. No.1020 of 2012 (Old C.C. No.275 of 2010) on the file of the Principal Judicial Magistrate of First Class, Adilabad District at Nirmal.

2. The petitioner herein is accused No.6. The offence alleged against him is under Section - 500 read with 149 of the IPC.

3. The allegations against the petitioner herein are as under: i) The petitioner herein is the Managing Director of Andhra Jyothi Telugu Daily Newspaper.

ii) He along with other accused got published a news items with regard to respondent No.2 herein - complainant as “Nirmallo Naklilalu” “Arhatha Lekunna Vaidyuluga Chalamani, Bayata Padda Physiotherapistla Bhagotham, Parasparam Policelaku Firiyadu”.

iii) The said news statement is defamatory, and thus, the petitioner herein along with other accused have got published the said news item in order to blackmail respondent No.2.

iv) Therefore, the petitioner has committed the above said offence.

4. Heard Mr. N. Venkateswara Rao, learned counsel for the petitioner and learned Assistant Public Prosecutor appearing on behalf of respondent No.1. Despite service of notice, none appeared on behalf of respondent No.2.

5. Mr. N. Venkateswara Rao, learned counsel for the petitioner would submit that the petitioner herein is the Chairman and Managing Director of M/s.Amoda Publications Private Limited, which is undertaking printing and publishing of Andhra Jyothi Telugu Daily Newspaper. Being the Chairman and Managing Director of the said Company, he is not responsible for publishing of the said news item and he is responsible for the corporate affairs of the said Company. Being Chairman and Managing Director, he had no knowledge of the same and the Reporters and others will not take any consent from the petitioner in publishing the said news item.

i) Learned counsel would further submit that taking cognizance against the petitioner herein is contrary to Section - 5 (1) of the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Act, 1867’). The same is also in violation of the principle laid down by the Hon’ble Supreme Court and this Court in a catena of decisions relied upon by him.

ii) Learned counsel would also submit that the said Company to which the petitioner herein is the Managing Director, operates from 20 places from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana States at various places and also News Channel in the name and style ‘ABN Andhra Jyothi’ controlled by the respective Editors of the Press, Editors and Chief Editors of the News Channel. The petitioner herein has no control over the day-to-day publication of the news items in respective regions of News Papers or the News telecasted by the said company. Even then, respondent No.2 herein has implicated the petitioner in the present case falsely only to harass him. The contents of the complaint lack the ingredients of the offence alleged against the petitioner herein.

iii) With the aforesaid submissions, learned counsel sought to quash the proceedings in the above C.C.

6. Learned Assistant Public Prosecutor, on instructions, would submit that the above defence taken by the petitioner herein may not be considered in a petition filed under Section - 482 of the Cr.P.C., and the petitioner herein has to take the said defence before the trial Court and that it is for the trial Court to consider the same. Instead of doing so, the petitioner has filed the present petition seeking to quash the proceedings in the above C.C.

i) Learned Assistant Public Prosecutor would further submit that the C.C. is of the year 2010 and it is now renumbered in the year 2012. With the said submissions, he sought to quash the proceedings in the above C.C.

7. In view of the above said submissions, as stated above, the allegation against the petitioner herein is that he is the Chairman and Managing Director of the above said company viz., M/s. Amoda Publications Private Limi