Court quashes order summoning Ansal's firm in defamation case

A Delhi court has set aside an order summoning real estate firm Ansal Buildwell Ltd as accused in a defamation case, saying a company cannot have a guilty mind to defame someone.
The court allowed the company's revision petition filed against a magisterial court's order saying it was "not sustainable" and the magistrate had "erred" in summoning the firm as an accused for the alleged offence of defamation.
"The revisionist (Ansal Buildwell) is a company and cannot be said to have mensrea (guilty mind) to defame the respondent and thus, could not have been summoned under section 500 (punishment for defamation) IPC.

"In view of my above discussion, I find that the trial court erred in summoning the revisionist under section 500 IPC and the impugned order is not sustainable. The impugned order of July 13, 2012 whereby the revisionist had been summoned... is accordingly set aside. The revision petition is accordingly allowed," Special Judge Parveen Singh said.
The court was hearing the revision petition filed by the firm, through advocate Vijay Aggarwal, seeking to set aside the magisterial court order summoning it as accused on the complaint of one Mahender Kumar Aggarwal alleging he was defamed by the firm which had filed a false extortion case against him.

The man, a chartered accountant, claimed that after registration of FIR, he lost many of his clients and his neighbours started avoiding him and his family.
The FIR against the man, however, was earlier quashed by the Delhi High Court which had said it was a clear misuse of the judicial process by the firm which wanted to preempt the move of the victims to initiate legal proceeding against it.
The legal battle started when Mahender filed a criminal complaint against the firm and its senior officials alleging that the company had raised the price after he booked the plot and when he protested it, the company's officials Gopal Ansal and Anurag Verma insisted that he should pay the enhanced price. He approached the police but no action was taken and then he moved the court with his complaint against the firm.