Coxe, J.:— This proceeding arises out of a complaint purporting to be made on the part of Rani Abhoyeswari Devi against the Petitioners accusing them of committing defamation. The complaint is not signed by the Rani, but by one Bhuban Mohan Chatterjee on behalf of the Rani. We are informed that there is no power-of-attorney on the record and that there is no power-of-attorney authorising the presentation of this specific complaint, although there is a general power-of-attorney authorising the presentation of criminal complaints. The document was presented to the Chief Presidency Magistrate, who issued process against the accused; and thereafter the case was transferred. The Magistrate, to whom it has ultimately come, has referred for our decision the following point:— “Whether the Rani can institute the case of defamation through her agent Bhuban Mohan Chatterjee and whether by doing so the requirements of sec. 198, Cr. P.C, have been met with.”
If the Rani makes a complaint to a Magistrate, the Magistrate is entitled to take coginizance of it. But before he takes cognizance, he must be satisfied that it is her complaint. It is comparatively unimportant by what means the complaint reaches the Magistrate, if really it is her own complaint.
But I hold that the magistrate should be very 10th to take cognizance of any complaint which is not presented in person. The words “at once” in sec. 200 of the Code clearly indicate that ordinarily a complaint must be presented in person. And I do not think that a complaint should ever be accepted which is not signed by the Complainant and is not preferred by a person duly authorised to prefer that specific complaint.
It is perfectly clear to me that the Magistrate in the Court below had no right to issue process against the accused persons in this case. It has been argued that when a case is transferred under sec. 192, Cr. P.C, before the Complainant has been examined, process can issue without the examination of the Complainant. That argument really has no application to the present case, because as a matter of fact process had been issued before the case was transferred. But in any case it is perfectly well settled that a process cannot be issued against an accused person, either by the Magistrate first taking cognizance of an offence, or by the Magistrate to whom the case is transferred, under the proviso to sec. 200, Cr. P.C, unless and until the Magistrate issuing process has first examined the Complainant, and this is perhaps more necessary in the case of a purdanashin lady than in other cases to enable the Magistrate to satisfy himself that the complaint is really her own action. In the present case, if the complaint is ill-founded, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to fix the Rani with any responsibility for the proceeding.
I see no reason, however, why the Complainant should not be examined under sec. 503, Cr. P.C The terms of that section are very wide. They refer not only to an enquiry and a trial, but to any other proceeding. The section authorises the examination of any witness, and a Complainant is certainly, in my opinion, a witness. There is, indeed less objection to the first examination of a Complainant than to the examination of a witness under this section, inasmuch as in the examination of a Complainant, before a process is issued, the accused is not entitled to be present or to cross-examine.
It seems to me, therefore, that the proper order to pass in this case is to say that if the complaint on the record is the complaint of the Rani, a point in which we have no materials for a decision, the requirements of sec. 198 have been satisfied. But the Magistrate was wrong in issuing process against the accused persons. In these circumstances, the best course to adopt is to quash the whole proceedings, giving liberty to the Rani to make such further complaint as she may be advised. If such complaint is made, the examination of the Complainant under sec. 200, Chap. XVI, of the Code may be made by a commission which should be directed to a Magistrate.
Sharfuddin, J.:— I agree.