IN THE HIGH COURT OF KARNATAKA AT BENGALURU DATED THIS THE 07TH DAY OF JANUARY 2019 BEFORE THE HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE JOHN MICHAEL CUNHA CRIMINAL PETITION NO.5726 OF 2012 C/W CRIMINAL PETITION NO.5727 OF 2012 IN CRL.P NO.5726/2012:
BETWEEN:
SRI. H.R. RANGANATH S/O SRI. H.K. RAMAKRISHNAIAH AGED ABOUT 47 YEARS MANAGING DIRECTOR PUBLIC TV CHANNEL WRITEMEN MEDIA PVT. LTD., TTMC, BMTC BUILDING, 4TH FLOOR YESHWANTHPUR CIRCLE BENGALURU - 22. ... PETITIONER (BY SRI. DIWAKAR, ADVOCATE) AND:
MR. MARIGEPPA SHIVARUDRAPPA BELLADA AGED ABOUT 40 YEARS ADVOCATE RESIDENT OF 4TH CROSS 4TH WEST MAIN ROAD UMASHANKARANAGARA RANNEBENNUR, HAVERI. ... RESPONDENT (RESPONDENT SERVED AND UNREPRESENTED) THIS CRIMINAL PETITION FILED U/S.407 CR.P.C PRAYING TO TRANSFER THE CASE C.C.NO.360/2012 PENDING BEFORE THE CIVIL JUDGE AND JMFC, RANNEBENNUR TO ANY COURTS IN BANGALORE.
IN CRL.P NO.5727/2012:
BETWEEN:
SRI. ARUN KUMAR S/O SRI. N. RAM SINGH AGED ABOUT 45 YEARS CEO PUBLIC TV CHANNEL WRITEMEN MEDIA PVT. LTD., TTMC, BMTC BUILDING, 4TH FLOOR YESHWANTHPUR CIRCLE BENGALURU - 22. ... PETITIONER (BY SRI. DIWAKAR, ADVOCATE) AND:
MR. SALOMAN ALFRED KATTIMANI AGED ABOUT 39 YEARS ADVOCATE SHAHPUR, GULBARGA. ... RESPONDENT (BY SRI. L. SRINIVASA BABU, ADVOCATE) THIS CRIMINAL PETITION FILED U/S.407 CR.P.C PRAYING TO TRANSFER THE CASE C.C.NO.50/2012 PENDING BEFORE THE CIVIL JUDGE (JR. DN.) AND JMFC, SHAPUR TO ANY COURTS IN BANGALORE.
THESE CRIMINAL PETITIONS COMING ON FOR ORDERS THIS DAY, THE COURT MADE THE FOLLOWING:-
O R D E R In all these petitions, the respective respondents have filed private complaints against the petitioners herein alleging commission of offence punishable under section 500 of Indian Penal Code.
2. The complaints were filed in respect of the incident that is alleged to have taken place on 2.3.2012 at City Civil Court, Bengaluru, when a former Minister in the Cabinet of Karnataka Assembly was scheduled to be produced before the City Civil Court Complex. The said incident was telecasted by the accused persons depicting the advocates in bad light. Hence, the advocates of different Bar Associations throughout Karnataka filed complaints against the TV Channels and newspaper personnel seeking action under sections 499 and 500 of Indian Penal Code.
3. The accused persons sought transfer of all these complaints to any one of the Courts in Bengaluru, under section 407 of Cr.P.C., mainly on the ground that Advocates at different parts of the State had passed resolutions not to represent any of the petitioners/accused persons in the aforesaid proceedings.
4. In a batch of such petitions, in Criminal Petition No.6264/2013 c/w. Criminal Petition No.6107/2012 dated 25.06.2014, after hearing both the parties, this Court dismissed the petitions filed by the petitioners under Section 407 Cr.P.C. The said order was challenged before the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in Transfer Petition (Crl.) No.284/2012 c/w. Transfer Petition (Crl.) Nos.285/2012, 289/2012, 291/2012,
and the Hon’ble Supreme Court dismissed the petitions vide order dated 30.04.2015 with the following observations:
“3. However, we hope and trust that the parties to this lis will sit together and make all efforts to settle small and petty differences that arose between them. We hope and presume that better sense would prevail on all the parties not to perpetuate the small differences hereafter.
4. If, for any reason, any one of the parties file an appropriate petition under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 before the High Court for appropriate relief(s), the High Court would consider the same sympathetically.”
5. In view of this order, the learned counsels appearing for the petitioners submit that they do not press the petitions filed by them seeking transfer of the proceedings. The submission of the learned counsels is placed on record.
The petitions are accordingly dismissed as not pressed.
In view of dismissal of the petitions, I.A.No.1/2012 filed in both the petitions do not survive for consideration and the same are also dismissed.
Sd/- JUDGE Bss