Public statements made during elections are subject to defamation laws and must be substantiated by evidence, emphasizing accountability for potentially harmful allegations.

CAV ORDER

The petitioner, a Member of Legislative Assembly of Karkala Legislative Constituency is knocking at the doors of this Court calling in question an order dated 20-03-2024 by which the XLII Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Bengaluru, in P.C.R.No.9331 of 2023 takes cognizance of the offences and issues summons for the offence under Section 499 of the IPC and punishable under Section 500 of the IPC and has sought quashment of the entire proceedings in C.C.No.11709 of 2024.

2. Facts, in brief, adumbrated are as follows:-

The issue relates to the Assembly elections that were conducted for the Karnataka Legislative Assembly in the month of May 2023. The respondent registers a complaint in P.C.R.No.9331 of 2023 on the score that his reputation built over 40 years has caused a dent by the candidate contested opposite to him. The incident is, after the election results on 13-05-2023, in a public function arranged by the petitioner at Bandimutt bus stand, Karkala he has with an intention to defame made false allegations against the respondent. The allegation made publicly was that, the respondent/complainant has committed murder of Hindus in the name of Tiger Gang and the accused persons are still in Kalaburgi jail. Though the complainant professes Hinduism, which one is pure Hinduism is a doubt. On these words, the respondent/complainant registers a private complaint before the learned Magistrate against the petitioner on the score that the statements made by the petitioner in public have caused a dent to the reputation of the complainant. On the complaint, the concerned Court takes cognizance of the offence, records the sworn statement and issues process to the petitioner. Issuance of process is what has driven the petitioner to this Court in the subject petition.

3. Heard Sri M.Vinod Kumar, learned counsel appearing for the petitioner and Sri Manjunath S. Halawar, learned counsel appearing for the respondent.

4. The learned counsel appearing for the petitioner submits that the statements made during elections cannot be taken as defamation; it was a statement made in a public rally. He would submit that even the respondent has made several statements against the petitioner and the petitioner has ignored all of them on the ground that they were made during election rally. He would seek to place reliance on the judgments of the Apex Court in the cases ofA. VIJAYAKANTH v. PUBLIC PROSECUTOR , (2017) 11 SCC 319 R. RAJAGOPAL v. STATE OF TAMIL NADU , (1994) 6 SCC 632 and that of the High Court of Allahabad inSALMAN KHURSHID v. STATE OF U.P. AND ANOTHER, 2023 SCC OnLine All 52 .

5. Per contra, the learned counsel appearing for the respondent/complainant would vehemently refute the submissions to contend that the reputation of the complainant has been damaged on account of the statements made by the petitioner. They are all untrue. He has neither associated with the Tiger gang nor has been jailed for any murder. Therefore, it is a matter of trial for the petitioner to come out clean. He would submit that if the petitioner is aggrieved by the statements made by the respondent in the election rally, it is open to him to initiate proceedings. He has not done so. He would seek dismissal of the petition.

6. I have given my anxious consideration to the submissions made by the respective learned counsel and have perused the material on record.

7. Elections to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly get over by announcement of results on 13-05-2023. Results declared the petitioner won and the respondent who contested as an independent candidate lost. At a victory rally on 14-05-2023, the petitioner is alleged to have made a statement against the complainant. The statement was made in a public rally while making his speech and calling the respondent a deal master, a congress ‘B’ team etc. inter alia. The clippings were widely published in the electronic media and the print media as well. People have witnessed the said election speech. On thi