HC upholds conviction of journalists in defamation case filed by bureaucrat

The Allahabad High Court has upheld the conviction of two journalists and a newspaper publisher in a criminal defamation case filed by bureaucrat Anant Kumar Singh over an interview published in 1994.

Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh of the Lucknow bench of the high court, however, granted them the benefit of the Probation of Offenders Act and released them on probation.

The bench dismissed the revision petitions filed by reporter Raman Kripal, executive editor A K Bhattacharya as well as printer and publisher Sanjiv Kanvar challenging their conviction by lower courts.

The matter pertains to an interview of Singh, the then district magistrate of Muzaffarnagar, published in The Pioneer and the Swatantra Bharat newspapers.

In the interview, Singh was quoted as saying that it is a human tendency when a woman is seen at a lonely place in the jungle any man will be inclined to rape her.

Though Singh had sent denial the same day saying that no such interview was given, they sat upon it for a week and later published it in the "Letter to Editor" column in a truncated form with the rejoinder of the reporter, further creating an impression that the interview was taken and the district magistrate had made the objectionable remarks.

Singh later filed a defamation case.

The special chief judicial magistrate, Lucknow had convicted and sentenced them in 2007. The court of additional sessions judge confirmed the conviction in 2012, against which the three had filed revision petitions in the high court in 2012.

Dismissing the revision petitions on August 8, the high court considered the unconditional apology tendered by the applicants in the course of the hearing and provided them the benefit of the Probation of Offenders Act.

It further directed Kripal to pay Rs 1 lakh and Bhattacharya and Kanwar Rs 50,000 each to Singh within one month.