Allahabad High Court quashes summons issued to Dainik Jagran Editor-in-Chief Sanjay Gupta

The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday quashed a magistrate's summons issued to Dainik Jagran Editor-In-Chief Sanjay Gupta for publishing an allegedly defamatory news item [Sanjay Gupta v. State of UP and anr]..Justice Syed Aftab Husain Rizvi ruled that the order of the magistrate was unsustainable for being in violation of legal provisions."Being Editor-in-Chief in absence of specific allegations against the applicant the legal bar will apply against him. He cannot be held responsible and prosecuted for any news item published in any edition of the news paper," the single-judge observed. .The summons order in question had been issued in connection with a news report published in the Hindi daily's Bareilly edition. It stated that the opposite party has been named in a first information report (FIR) for the offence of attempt to murder, among others.The magistrate found that as per the available material, a prima facie case was made out against Gupta. This, after the complainant and other witnesses were examined as per provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code.A revision petition challenging this order was dismissed by a Sessions Judge, prompting the petitioner to approach the High Court..Before the High Court, counsel for the petitioner submitted that the Editor-in-Chief was not responsible for day-to-day reporting in local editions and that the same is done under the supervision of editors and local reporters. Gupta, therefore, could not have been impleaded in the absence of specific allegations, it was argued. It was pointed out that even the witness examined was a relative of the complainant and not an independent one, and thus the magistrate's order was an abuse of the process of law.Counsel for the opposite party and State argued that the published report was totally wrong on facts as there was no such criminal case against the complainant. Therefore, the article was based on false facts to bring to disrepute the complainant and his family. There was no illegality or infirmity in the orders of the courts below, the counsel added. .Justice Rizvi at the outset noted that there was "no specific averment" against Gupta."No person should be tried without a prima facie case. The present complaint filed by the opposite party no. 2 complainant does not contain any positive averments in the complaint about the knowledge of the objectionable character of the matter mentioned in it."The magistrate order was thus held to be unsustainable and was accordingly quashed..Advocate Chandra Bhan Gupta represented the petitioner. Government Advocate Santosh Kumar Tiwari appeared for the State of Uttar Pradesh. .[Read order]