HC dismisses petition filed by News Portal seeking quashment of defamation proceedings

STATE TIMES NEWS

JAMMU: In a significant judgment, Justice Mohan Lal of High Court of Jammu and Kashmir & Ladakh at Jammu, dismissed a petition filed by Arun Trishal, Editior in Chief of Alert India News House Pvt. Ltd. (Web News Channel) Kathua seeking quashment of Criminal Complaint titled Dr. Adeep Kumar Gupta v/s Arun Trishal and Anr for commission of offences punishable u/s 500 (defamation), 504/506/34 IPC pending disposal before the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Kathua.
The CJM, Kathua, on August 11th, 2021 had taken cognizance of a criminal complaint filed by Dr. Adeep Kumar Gupta owner of Gupta Hospital Kalibari Kathua against Arun Trishal Editor in Chief of a Web News Portal and Prem Lal Ex MLA, Hiranagar for airing a news item on May, 14th, 2021 wherein on camera serious allegations were leveled by Ex MLA Hiranagar with regard to the facilities and infrastructure at Gupta Hospital Kalibari, Kathua. The said Web portal interview containing offensive/defamatory content was conducted by Arun Kumar Trishal in his Web News Channel.
The Editor in Chief on September 27th, 2021 of Web News Portal filed a petition before Jammu wing of the High Court challenging defamation proceedings on the ground that no fetters can be placed on the freedom of press by initiating criminal proceedings against a reporter who was performing his professional duty by publishing a news on his news portal i.e the speech of Prem Lal Ex-MLA Hiranagar who expressed his views against the functioning of the hospital owned by Dr. Adeep Kumar Gupta.
When this matter came up for hearing, Advocate Jagpaul Singh appearing for petitioner (Web News Portal) submitted that the trial Magistrate i.e CJM Kathua mechanically took cognisance and failed to appreciate that the petitioner being journalist just performed his professional duties by interviewing Ex MLA Hiranagar, Prem Lal who was aggrieved of the death of his nephew because of COVID-19 at GMC, Kathua.
On the other hand, Advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed with Advocates Supriya Chouhan, Rahul Raina, Sayed Majid Shah, Mohd Aleem Beg, Adnan Mushtaq Jaral and M. Zulkarnain Chowdhary appearing for Dr. Adeep Kumar Gupta owner of Gupta Hospital, Kalibari Kathua submitted that the editor in chief of the News Web Portal aired the defamatory news item without taking the version of Gupta Hospital and the one sided news item caused extensive damage to the reputation of the Gupta Hospital which is serving the patients coming from districts Udhampur, Samba, Kathua and Punjab for the last more than 2 decades.
Advocate S. S. Ahmed further submitted that the instant case is a classic example of ‘Yellow Journalism’ wherein the Petitioner /editior in chief of Web News Portal threw to winds the journalistic ethics and without verifying and ascertaining the facts aired the defamatory news thereby tarnishing the image of the Gupta Hospital which is a reputed Hospital in district Kathua.
Advocate S. S. Ahmed relied upon a recent judgment of the Supreme Court titled Rohini Singh and Ors. v/s State of Gujarat and Ors. wherein the Apex Court came heavily against a Web news portal for its one sided reporting.
After considering the submissions of both the sides, Justice Mohan Lal observed that “I have perused the impugned order dated 11.08.2021 passed by the Court of CJM, Kathua taking cognizance of the complaint filed by Dr. Adeep Kumar Gupta and I am of considered opinion that the trial court has applied it’s mind, satisfied itself that the allegations in the complaint constitute an offence indicating sufficient grounds for taking cognizance of the offence of defamation against the petitioner Arun Kumar Trishal and Ex MLA Prem Lal. I do not find any legal justification to interfere with reasoned order passed by the trial court which doesn’t suffer from any illegality, perversity or patent error.”
With these observations, the Court dismissed the petition being legally unsustainable.