Karnataka High Court Upholds 3-Month Jail Term Of Newspaper Staff For Violating Order In Defamation Case, Says Tendering Apology Not Enough

The Karnataka High Court has upheld 3-month civil imprisonment against the editor, managing director and director of Karavali Ale newspaper for violating a temporary injunction order, holding that the trial court could not have have directed them to tender an apology instead of imposing a punishment under Order 39 Rule 2A CPC.

The Court accordingly dismissed the writ petition seeking to quash the appellate court's order. The appellate court had found error in the trial court's order, which directed the petitioners to tender an apology instead of imposing the punishments provided under Order XXXIX Rule 2A of the CPC for disobedience or breach of injunction—namely, attachment of property or detention in civil prison for up to three months.

“The legal maxim Nulla poena sine lege means no punishment without law, the Court is duty bound to award a punishment within the framework of law and cannot invent new penalties,” Justice Vijaykumar A. Patil observed.

The High Court relied on the Supreme Court's ruling in State of Madhya Pradesh vs. Centre for Environment Protection Research and Development, wherein the Apex Court had said, “It is well settled that when a statute or statutory rules prescribed a penalty for any act or omission, no other penalty not contemplated in the statute or statutory rules can be imposed. It is well settled that when statute requires a thing to be done in a particular manner, it is to be done only in that manner.”

The Court said that where the law provides two options for imposing punishment, then any deviation by the trial court from those options and its subsequent direction to issue an apology to the petitioner is not in consonance with the law.

The Court held, “Hence, the Appellate Court has rightly appreciated the scope of the law and held that the direction to tender an apology as a form of punishment could not be imposed by the Trial Court at its own discretion without any statutory rule to the said effect and has proceeded to impose a punishment by ordering the petitioners to be detained in the civil prison for a period of three months, which does not call for any interference.”

It further rejected the submission of the petitioners that Rupees two lakh deposited before the High Court in the form of compensation be released in favour of the respondent.

The Court noted that Order 39 Rule 2A contains no provision for awarding such compensation and held that payment of the amount could not redeem the petitioners from undergoing the punishment as ordered by the appellate court. Justice Patil, thus, permitted the petitioners to withdraw the amount deposited.

Background

The respondent-plaintiff, an advocate, had instituted a suit seeking a permanent prohibitory injunction restraining the petitioners (defendants) from making or publishing defamatory statements, photographs, pictures or articles concerning him.

The trial court granted a temporary prohibitory injunction against the petitioners. The petitioners, however, violated the order by publishing a defamatory article against the respondent in the Karavali Ale newspaper on April 18, 2015.

Consequently, on April 29, 2015, the respondent initiated proceedings under Order XXXIX Rule 2A of the CPC seeking to punish the petitioners. Finding that the petitioners had violated the injunction order, the trial court directed them to publish an apology in the Karavali Ale newspaper, which the petitioners issued on October 22, 2021.

The respondent challenged this order before the appellate court, arguing that the trial court had exceeded the scope of Order XXXIX Rule 2A by directing an apology instead of imposing one of the punishments contemplated under the provision.

The appellate court allowed the appeal and directed that the petitioners be detained in civil prison for three months. The petitioners then challenged the impugned order before the High Court.

Case: SRI. SATHISH N. VAIDYA & OTHERS vs MR. M.P. NORONHA

WRIT PETITION NO.23294/2022 (GM-CPC)

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