Karnataka HC lays down procedure for a Magistrate who receives a police ‘B’ report in a private complaint; summons quashed
The question: Can the petitioner be prosecuted as Managing Director when the company has not been arraigned as an accused?
The Karnataka High Court has quashed a Magistrate's orders rejecting a police ‘B’ report and issuing process against the petitioner, accused No. 4, in a private complaint alleging that software was copied and cheating committed, and has set out the procedure a Magistrate should follow when a ‘B’ report is filed after a reference under Section 156(3) of the Cr.P.C. Justice H.P. Sandesh held that, without arraigning the company, there could be no criminal prosecution of the petitioner, who was described as its Managing Director. He also found that the Magistrate had rejected the ‘B’ report and issued summons without considering the protest memo, the sworn statements and the documents together. The Registrar General was directed to send the order to all Magistrates and Judges dealing with private complaints and to the Director of the Karnataka Judicial Academy. The complainant, owner of a company, alleged that it had developed and patented a software called Kaleido and, in 2014, gave it on trial to the Pearson company, which copied and marketed it. On a complaint dated 30 May 2015, police registered Crime No. 176/2015 under Section 420 IPC and, on a requisition to the Magistrate, added Sections 380, 406, 468, 471 and 120B IPC and Section 65 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, then filed a ‘B’ report. The complainant filed a protest petition and her sworn statement was recorded on 17 December 2016. By an order of 8 July 2019 the IV Addl. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Bengaluru, rejected the ‘B’ report and took cognizance. After a further sworn statement, an order of 21 December 2019 again took cognizance and directed summons to the accused. The petition, filed under Section 482 of the Cr.P.C., sought to quash the order rejecting the ‘B’ report, the order taking cognizance and issuing summons, and the case itself.