Publishing news item about rift in police department not offence under Section 505 IPC: Bombay High Court

Publishing a news article about rift within two sections of police department would not amount to an offence under Section 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Bombay High Court held on Friday [Amol Vyavhare vs Purnima Shrirangi]. .A division bench of Justices PB Varale and Shreeram Modak was hearing a petition filed by a journalist from Solapur, seeking to quash criminal proceedings initiated against him for publishing a news article on rift between the officers of the city police department."If we will say that any news article pertaining to two Sections of any department will fall within the purview of Section 505(2) of the Indian Penal Code, in that case, we are interpreting the provision too far and it is not expected by legislatures. Hence, we are not inclined to accept the submissions made on behalf of the prosecution. We reject it," the bench ruled..According to the prosecution case, the articles published in Dainik Pudhari spoke about the rift amongst the officers of two departments of the Solapur Police. The articles spoke about the raids by the city crime branch, wherein some police personnel were found drunk. It also allege that there was a tussle between the officers from the city crime branch and the deputy commissioner of the police of the city.The prosecution claimed that the articles were defamatory and also amounted to an offence under Section 505(2). It claimed that the article tried to create a rift between the two groups or sections of the city police department.The Bench accepted that by reading the two news articles, any person will certainly form an opinion that there is a rift between the police personnel of two offices - the staff of the Office of Deputy Police Commissioner and staff attached to Crime Branch of Solapur Unit"It is also true that it may not give a good message about overall functioning of the Police Commissionerate Office, Solapur. It is also true that it will create an alarm amongst the members of the society to the effect that whether Police of Solapur Commissionerate area are in a position to protect their interest in case of need and whether they are competent to maintain law and order," the bench conceded. However, the same would not be sufficient to attract the offence under Section 505 (2) IPC. In this regard, the Court noted the ingredients of offence under Section 505(2). "The provisions of sub-section are very clear. Alarming news or rumour must relate to following subjects :- (a) relation (b) race, (c) place of birth, (d) residence, (e) language, (f) caste, (g) community. The subject of two news articles does not relate to any of the categories mentioned in Section 505(2) of the Indian Penal Code," the Court ruled. As far as the invocation of section 500 of the IPC is concerned, the judges noted that the procedure for filing a proper complaint under Section 199 of the Code of Criminal Procedure was not followed. The Court, therefore, quashed the case against the petitioner journalist..Advocate Anvil Kalekar appeared for the petitioner while the State was represented by additional public prosecutor Jayesh Yagnik..[Read Judgment]