Case Law Details
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. & Ors. Vs State of West Bengal (Calcutta High Court)
Conclusion: In present facts of the case, the Hon’ble High Court quashed the proceedings under Section 385 of IPC pertaining to extortion as in the present case, the petitioners acted as per the agreement between the parties to demand their legitimate dues. There was also no dishonest intention on the part of the petitioners.
Facts: In present facts of the case, the present revision has been preferred praying for quashing of the investigation/proceeding initiated under Sections 385/120B of the IPC 1860, as also corresponding proceedings of C.G.R No.1806 of 2019 pending before the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate.
The petitioner’s case is that the petitioner no.1 is a company incorporated under the Companies Act and is the owner of various channels and engaged in the business of broadcasting of its channels. The petitioner nos. 2 to 7 are the employees/officers of the petitioner no.1. The said petitioner no.1 (Broadcaster) for distributing its abovenamed channels entered into a contractual arrangement by way of an interconnect Agreement with various Multi-System Operators (MSO’s)/Distribution Platform Owners (DPO’s) for distributing the channels to end subscribers. The said MSO/DPO is liable to pay to the Broadcasters the subscription charges collected from its end subscribers by way of a true ad correct declaration of the actual number of subscribers serviced by such MSO/DPO reflecting in its Conditional Access System (CAS) and Subscriber Management System (SMS).
The application filed by the opposite party no.2 under Section 156(3) of Cr.P.C was a counterblast to the disconnection notice dated 18.04.2019 issued by the petitioner no.1 to the opposite party no.2 to stall the legitimate recovery process undertaken in accordance with law. The opposite party no.2 himself has admittedly approached the learned TDSAT, challenging the legality and validity of the Disconnection Notice dated 18.04.2019. In such circumstances, the application filed under Section 156(3) of Cr.P.C and the subsequent First Information Report is misconceived, malafide and vexatious one.
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