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Jaideep Bose v. M/S Bid and Hammer Auctioneers Private Limited

Criminal Appeal · 2025 INSC 241Decided 18 Feb 2025
Criminal Appeal No. 814 of 2025 (with connected Criminal Appeal Nos. 815-817 of 2025), arising out of SLP(Crl.) No. 10212 of 2024
Justice J.B. Pardiwala · Justice R. Mahadevan

Background

An auction house filed a private criminal complaint against 14 people, including a newspaper company's editorial director and several journalists, over news articles questioning the authenticity of paintings at its 2014 auction. A magistrate issued summons for defamation; the High Court quashed the complaint only against the company but let it stand against the individual accused, who appealed to the Supreme Court in four connected appeals.

Decision Breakdown

The Court held that the editorial director (unlike a statutorily-designated "editor" under the Press and Registration of Books Act) enjoys no presumption of responsibility for content, and the complaint contained only vague, generic allegations against him. For the journalist-appellants, it found the magistrate had failed to conduct the mandatory Section 202 CrPC inquiry required before summoning accused persons who reside outside the court's jurisdiction. Given the auction had already concluded over a decade ago with no proven damage, the Court declined to order a remand and instead quashed the complaint and summoning order against all the appellants, while emphasizing that press freedom must be balanced with responsible reporting.

Lesson Learnt

A generic managerial title alone cannot fix criminal defamation liability without specific allegations of actual editorial control, and magistrates must strictly follow the mandatory Section 202 CrPC inquiry before summoning an accused who lives outside their jurisdiction: failure to do so can invalidate the entire proceeding.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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