THE HON’BLE SHRI JUSTICE ANIL KUMAR JUKANTI CRIMINAL PETITION No.15438 OF 2024

O R D E R:

This Criminal Petition is filed under Section 528 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (for short ‘BNSS’) by petitioner/accused No.2 to quash the proceedings in STC.No.1759 of 2023 pending on the file of the Court of the Judicial First Class Magistrate at Khanapur.

2. Notice served on respondent No.2, there is no representation on behalf of respondent No.2.

3. Heard Mr. Alluri Divakar Reddy, learned counsel for petitioner and Mr. Surepalli Prashanth, learned Assistant Public Prosecutor for the respondent – State. Perused the material on record.

4. On the basis of complaint, dated 10.10.2023, an FIR bearing No.179 of 2023 is registered on 11.10.2023 at Police Station Khanapur, Nirmal, for offence punishable under Section 500 of IPC.

5. Contents of the complaint/FIR are that when respondent No.2 (on 10.09.2023) was at Obulapur bridge, an accident took place, respondent No.2 and another went to Police Station, with respect to the accident, there was an altercation between the complainant and one Neerati Praveen Kumar, police counseled both parties. One Konda Suresh, Gandhari Narendra Nath took video and posted it in Social Media on 23.09.2023. The act of posting (uploading) the video(s) on Social Media on 23.09.2023 with regard to the incident at Police Station and the incident at Government hospital on 10.09.2023 at 10.15 hours are termed to be defamatory, hence, the complaint.

Charge sheet is filed in October, 2023.

6. Learned counsel for petitioner submitted that complaint is not maintainable, FIR cannot be registered on the basis of a complaint lodged before the police in cases of defamation.

7. Learned counsel for petitioner relied on the Hon’ble Apex Court judgments in S. Khushboo Vs. Kanniammal and another1 and Arnab Ranjan Goswami Vs. Union of India and others, (2020) 14 SCC 12 and contended that complaint has to be made before the Magistrate and the Magistrate has to consider the contents of the complaint and act on such complaint. That, in the present case, the act of receiving the complaint by the Police, registering of FIR, filing of charge sheet, are not in accordance with law.

8. It is submitted that accident occurred on 10.09.2023, altercation was at the Government Hospital (between Neerati Praveen Kumar and respondent No.2) and also at police station. Incident was videographed and posted on social media on 23.09.2023. That, complaint was lodged on 10.10.2023, after 17 days, that there is no explanation for the delay in lodging the complaint. It is further submitted that FIR came to be registered on 11.10.2023, a month later. No explanation is offered as to why FIR was registered after a month. For the above reasons, counsel sought the relief of quashing of the proceedings in STC

1 (2010) 5 SCC 600

No.1759 of 2023, on the file of the Court of Judicial First Class Magistrate at Khanapur.

9. Learned counsel for respondent No.2 submitted that petitioner/accused No.2 videographed the quarrel at Government hospital and the altercation at the police station and posted it on Social Media.

10. Counsel for petitioner also relied on the judgment of learned Single Judge reported in Manoj Kumar Tiwari Vs. Manish Sisodia and others3 and Boddu Yohan Vs. The Sub Inspector of Police, Chinthalapudi Police Station, West Godavari District, and another4

11. Heard learned counsels, perused the record and considered the submissions.

12. An accident occurred on 10.09.2023 at Obulapur Bridge, an altercation took place at Government hospital between respondent No.2 and two other persons namely i.e., Neerati Praveen Kumar and Gandhari Narendra Nath. Respondent No.2 and two persons were taken to the Police

3 (2022) SC 853

Station. Counseling was conducted, the entire episode between the respondent No.2 and Neerati Praveen Kumar at the Police Station was video recorded by Konda Suresh and Gandhari Narendra Nath accused No.2/petitioner herein.

13. Alleging that episo