IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS

RESERVED ON : 18.04.2022

DELIVERED ON : 27.05.2022

CORAM:

THE HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE M.NIRMAL KUMAR

Crl.O.P.No.16726 of 2018

and

Crl.M.P.No.8625 fo 2018

R.Sathiyamurthi

S/o. Late T.V.Ramasubbaiyer

... Petitioner/Accused

Versus

V.Devrajan

... Respondent

PRAYER : Criminal Original petition filed under Section 482

Cr.P.C. praying to call for the proceedings under C.C.No.14 of

2018 on the file of Judicial Magistrate Court Court No.VI,

Coimbatore and quash the same.

For Petitioner : Mr.N.Senthilkumar

For Respondent : Mr.C.S.Dhanasekaran

O R D E R

This Criminal Original Petition has been filed to quash the

proceedings in C.C.No.14 of 2018 on the file of Judicial

Magistrate Court No.VI, Coimbatore.

2. The petitioner, who is facing trial on a private

complaint filed by the respondent for the offence under Section

74(3) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Childrens)

Act, 2015 (J.J. Act), has filed this quash petition. The

petitioner had now filed a memo informing the Court that

C.C.No.14 of 2018 was transferred to the Court of the Judicial

Magistrate-II, Coimbatore and renumbered as C.C.No.1396 of 2019

and the same is pending.

3. The gist of the case is that on 01.01.2017 at about

11.00 a.m., when the respondent/complainant was in his house

along with his friends, he came across a report in “Dinamalar”

daily paper, Erode edition dated 18.07.2016. At page No.6 of the

daily, the petitioner published a news item under the caption “9

taJ rpWkpia brf;!; gyhj;fhuk; bra;a Kaw;rp. bjhHpyhsp ifJ”. The respondent

https://hcservices.ecourts.gov.in/hcservices/

was shocked and surprised to see such news published in the

daily newspaper, which has wide circulation in the state of

Tamil Nadu. The victim in this case is a 9 years old child. The

victim's grandmother name had been published. Further, the

victim is a 4^th standard school going child and due to the

publication of the such item, the petitioner had committed an

offence under Section 74(3) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and

Protection of Children) Act, 2015. The respondent sent a lawyer

notice on 09.01.2017 to the petitioner calling for explanation

as to why he should not be prosecuted. The legal notice dated

09.01.2017 was received by the petitioner on 11.01.2017.

Thereafter, no reply was forthcoming. Hence, a complaint was

lodged on 23.02.2017. Initially, respondent/complainant's sworn,

statement recorded. Thereafter, the respondent side witnesses,

namely, C.W.1-P.Ravindran and C.W.2-P.Suresh were recorded. The

trial Court, satisfying, prima facie case is made out, took the

complaint on file, issued summons to the petitioner, against

which, the petitioner has filed this quash petition.

4. The contention of the petitioner is that the petitioner

along with his brothers, is running the Tamil daily newspaper

“Dinamalar”. The petitioner is in-charge of the Erode and Salem

editions as its Editor, Printer and Publisher. There are 10

editions of “Dinamalar”. The petitioner had commenced his

journey with the newspaper nearly 50 years ago. He worked as

Assistant to his father, late T.V.Ramasubbiyer and thereafter

rose to the level of Editor. The newspaper got wide circulation

and following, on an average, nearly 300 news items are

published daily. The daily circulation of the newspaper in Tamil

Nadu is about 9 lakh copies per day. In the Erode edition of the

newspaper dated 18.07.2016, a news item was published with

regard to an attempt of molestation of a 9 years old minor girl

and the arrest of a worker. The petitioner submits that the

press report about the sexual assault was released by the

concerned police. Since the victim was of 9 years old minor

girl, it has become a sensational in the locality. Further,

there was an