Patna High Court: The Bench comprising of Ashwani Kumar Singh, J, in an order stayed the proceedings against Juggernaut Books (P) Ltd. in regard to the defamation complaint by a complainant on behalf of Swami Ramdev.
The petitioner’s counsel in his submissions placed that Section 199 (1) CrPC makes it mandatory that a complaint about defamation requires the person who is aggrieved to file the complaint on his own, i.e. person against whom imputation has been made. In the present matter, it has been observed that the complainant who has filed the complaint is not aggrieved in this case.
Another contention that has been stated by the petitioner by placing reliance on G. Narasimhan, G. Kasturi v. T.V. Chokkappa, 1972 (2) SCC 680 submitted was that the Court below took cognizance of the offences under Section 500, 501 and 502 IPC which was not acceptable. The crux of this particular contention of the petitioner was that the cognizance taken by Magistrate under Section 295 A IPC was in the absence of previous sanction by the Central and or State Government which indeed is a necessity.
Therefore, the High Court concluded by staying the proceedings and issuing a notice to Opposite Party 1. [Juggernaut Books (P) Ltd. v. State of Bihar, Criminal Miscellaneous No. 10548 of 2018, Order dated 18-08-2018]