Minister KJ George's Defamation Case Against Kannada Prabha Editor Must Be Tried By Magistrate, Not MP/MLA Court: Karnataka High Court

The Karnataka High Court set aside proceedings before the sessions court against Editor-in-Chief of Kannada Prabha newspaper Ravi Hegde in a criminal defamation case lodged against him by Minister K J George with respect to certain newspaper articles. The legislator had in 2020 filed a defamation case against Ravi Krishna Reddy and N R Ramesh, president and general secretary of the Karnataka Rashtra Samithi, and Hegde for allegedly making “baseless, deliberate, reckless, malicious and false allegations” against him.Justice S Sunil Dutt Yadav was hearing Hegde's plea–who is accused no.4 before the trial court–seeking setting aside of an order dated 17.01.2020 whereby cognizance was taken against Hegde.The petitioner had also sought for setting aside of entirety of the defamation proceedings pending before the Additional City Civil & Sessions Judge. At the time of hearing of the matter, it was pointed out that order of cognizance was passed by the Sessions Judge which was the Designated Special Court. However the offences involved are Section 499 and 500 (defamation) IPC, and respect to such offences cognizance could have been taken only by the Magistrate Court in terms of Section 190 Cr.P.C. "Though there was some ambiguity at the initial stage where Special Courts were set up to try the offences involving elected members, subsequent clarification by the Apex Court is to the effect that the Special Court would be the jurisdictional court, which would mean if the offences is to be tried by a Magistrate, then the court of Magistrate would be competent to try the offences. In the present case, Section 499 and 500 IPC are triable by the Magistrate. Therefore, the proceedings before the Sessions Court were not permissible," the high court said.The court thus set aside all the proceedings subsequent to 25.11.2019 (date of filing of complaint) and directed that the complaint be considered afresh post 25.11.2019 by the jurisdictional Magistrate."It is also clarified that as the complainant is the only elected member and no accused are elected members, the case need not be tried by the Designated Courts for M.P., MLA and elected members, however the proceedings are to be tried by the jurisdictional Magistrate. All contentions of both sides are kept open," the high court said.Noting the defect wherein the sessions court had taken cognizance and issued process even insofar as other accused who were not present before the court, the high court said that the proceedings "would have to be re-commenced from the same stage as ordered in the present petition". "However, it is clarified that proceedings against accused no.3 have culminated in setting aside of the proceedings against him and such closure would not be disturbed," the court said adding that proceedings against the other accused persons–i.e., accused nos.1, 2 and 4 may be proceeded with in terms of the present order. It was earlier argued that the Karnataka Rashtriya Samitee issued a Press release, saying that a complaint had been lodged against George before the ED.It was Hegde's case that the articles published by the newspaper have been "parroted" only pursuant to the Samitee's press release and no intention or motive can be attributed to him or the paper.The plea was disposed of.Case title: SRI RAVI HEGDE v/s KELACHANDRA JOSEPH GEORGECRIMINAL PETITION NO. 4209 OF 2021 Click Here To Read/Download Order

Minister KJ George's Defamation Case Against Kannada Prabha Editor Must Be Tried By Magistrate, Not MP/MLA Court: Karnataka High Court

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