Calcutta High Court Quashes Defamation Case Against Republic Journalists And Editor For Allegedly Circulating Call With Kabir Suman
The High Court quashed the criminal case, ruling that bypassing the mandatory Section 202 CrPC inquiry for an accused living outside jurisdiction is legally untenable.
The Calcutta High Court has quashed criminal defamation proceedings against Abhishek Kapoor, Senior Executive Editor/Editor-in-Chief of Republic Media and a Republic Bangla journalist, over an alleged telephonic call to singer/songwriter Kabir Suman.
The Court observed that the Magistrate completely bypassed the mandatory pre-summoning inquiry mandated under Section 202 of the Cr.P.C..
The Bench of Justice Uday Kumar held, "It is an undisputed position of record that the petitioners reside beyond the territorial jurisdiction of the learned Magistrate at Alipore, as such, the shortcut adopted by the trial court completely defeats the legislative wisdom and mandate of Section 202 Cr.P.C, thus, is not legally tenable...Upon a holistic synthesis of the statutory provisions, the undisputed facts, the continuous flow of arguments advanced by the learned senior counsel for the petitioners, and the ratio decidendi of the binding precedents cited herein, this Court is firmly of the view that the continuation of Complaint Case No. 1286 of 2022 against both petitioners is an egregious abuse of the process of law and a travesty of justice."
Senior Advocate Sandipan Ganguly and Advocate Apalak Basu appeared for the Petitioner.
Two revisional applications under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure were filed seeking quashing of criminal proceedings pending before the Judicial Magistrate in a complaint case filed under Sections 499, 500, and 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.
On January 27, 2022, at 1:30 p.m., a telephonic call was made by Bittu Chowdhury, reporter attached to Republic Bangla, to the opposite party no. 2, Kabir Suman, concerning a news reaction regarding the late Sandhya Mukherjee. Annoyed by the call, the opposite party no. 2 reacted with intemperate language, uninhibitedly hurling a torrent of common Bengali slangs and expletives. Subsequently, the opposite party no. 2 published a long Facebook apology admitting to his intemperate outburst.
Consequently, after legal notices were exchanged, the Magistrate ultimately took cognizance and issued summons. While the reporter (Bittu Chowdhury) was directly accused of recording and circulating the conversation, Abhishek Kapoor (petitioner in another plea), the Senior Executive Editor/Editor-in-Chief, Republic Media Network, was roped in personally and vicariously despite the admitted and uncontroverted position that no such programme, news segment, or audio recording was ever aired, broadcast, or telecast by Republic Bangla or any channel of the Republic Media Network.
It was submitted by the Petitioner that the criminal prosecution is legally stillborn as the foundational ingredients of the penal offence of defamation under Section 499 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 are conspicuously absent.
It was argued that a person cannot be said to defame another by truthfully reproducing or capturing what that very person has himself uttered in an uninhibited outburst.
The Court observed that the summoning order suffered from fatal procedural and substantive illegalities. It was held that the impugned order was issued mechanically against a vague designation and reporter without reflecting any application of judicial mind to ascertain individual roles or specific culpability regarding applicability of the offence charged thereunder.
"Compounding these glaring illegalities, the learned Magistrate completely bypassed the mandatory pre-summoning inquiry mandated under Section 202 of the Cr.P.C. The Hon'ble Supreme Court in Subramanian Swamy v. Union of India, Ministry of Law & Ors. [(2016) 7 SCC 221] has authoritatively underscored that the amended Section 202 Cr.P.C. casts a mandatory obligation on the Magistrate to postpone the issuance of process and conduct an inquiry or direct an investigation when the accused resides beyond the territorial jurisdiction, specifically to filter out false, vexatious, or harassing complaints against persons residing at far-off places", the Court observed.
The Court also recorded its anguish regarding the persistent and deliberate absence of the Opposite Party no. 2(complainant).
Accordingly, the Court allowed the revision applications and quashed the criminal proceedings against the Petitioners.
Cause Title: Abhishek Kapoor vs. Kabir Suman [CRR 4680 of 2022] and Bittu Roy Choudhury vs. Kabir Suman [CRR 842 of 2023]
Appearances:
Petitioners: Senior Advocate Sandipan Ganguly, Advocates Apalak Basu, Smita Mukherjee, Zoeb Cutelrywala, Soheli Bose, Apalak Basu and Navneet Sewak