that it comes within the knowledge of a third person who is not the subject of the defamatory statement. Wife in her counter said husband is impotent. It is thus essential that accurate reports of these proceedings are made and excluded from the domain of the offence of defamation. Here the latter words are a comment on the former. If a postman, in the ordinary course of business, delivers a letter, the same being done with good faith and without knowledge of the defamation, shall not be held liable. If the defendant is not able to prove the truth of the facts, the defense cannot be availed. Normally, the editor of the newspaper is responsible for publishing defamatory material but if he, for a bonafide purpose, is absent from duty, he will not be liable. If the statement is true and it harms the reputation of someone, the same will not create liability. Hence, if a defamatory letter is sent directly to the person defamed or if the statements are made over a telephonic conversation which wasn’t heard by others, there will be no offence under Section 499 as there is no publication of it. court held the defendants for publishing defamatory matter against the defendants. This article is written by Ayesha Zaidi, a third-year student currently pursuing B.A.LL.B (Hons) from Dr Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow. The Supreme Court in the case of G. Narsimhan v TV Chokappa has held that the collection of persons must be an identifiable body so that one can ascertain and differentiate a group of particular persons from the rest of society. The right of the state to interfere with the marital sexual relationship is limited by the U.S. Constitution as i… Who made the imputation and what is his position in society? In the case of. This is an exhaustive article which deals with the Law of Defamation as existent under Indian Law and a thorough analysis of its provisions and scope and extent of the law in general. which tends to lower the reputation of the plaintiff. Matters like administration of government departments, courts, ministers, public meetings, textbooks, etc are considered to be matters of public interest. Such a report, as between the publisher and the person defamed, is treated as a qualified privilege”. For example- Defaming a person through a representation made in some permanent form like writing, printing etc. It also extends to counsels, witnesses, and parties to a suit. This distinction between libel and slander is mainly on two reasons-. It states that protection needs to be provided to communications between parties that are acting in good faith, in due course of business. Login Alert. In the case of Hirabai Jehangir v. Dinshawdulji the Bombay and Madras high court both held that no distinction needs to be made between treating libel and slander as criminal offenses. Therefore, if the defamation case were to proceed and 'the wife' should appear as a witness to give evidence about the communication made to her by her husband (the first respondent), the communication could not be deposed to unless the first respondent consented because, if the marriage was subsisting at the time when the communication was made the bar prescribed by … Moreover, each Party represents that the division of property, assets and other expectancies (if any), as set forth in this Agreement, to include real … Whether a statement lowers the reputation of a person or not will be dependant on how right-thinking members of society. If a defamatory statement is made with respect to a community in general, then unless the person alleging the defamation can prove that the statement could reasonably be considered to refer to him, he cannot bring forth a claim for damages. Imputation of an infectious disease to the plaintiff which has the effect of preventing others from associating with the plaintiff. Therefore, the statement that is alleged to be defamatory must not only be hurtful to the deceased but also to the feelings of the family and relatives. that you are using cocaine during some part of the divorce proceedings, for example. The High Court of Bombay has held that a notice that is defamatory in nature which an individual gets issued through his advocate will not constitute the offence of defamation as all communication between a client and an attorney is private, confidential and privileged and as such is only addressed to the person defamed. The test to check if a particular statement is defamatory or not will depend upon how the right thinking members of society are likely to take it. There can be direct communication to the defamed which would fall within the offence of defamation. If on publication of the statement, a reasonably prudent man can infer that such statement is about the plaintiff, then the accused shall be liable for the offence. Defamation would not be the initial or most important basis of your lawsuit though. This was further elucidated upon in Vasant Kumar Birla & Ors v. Prakash Jha & Ors where it was held that “There was no action in defamation lies against any libel or slander against dead persons. knew Urdu and the letter will very likely be read over by another person. The society at large must have the opportunity to freely criticising the performances or literary work that is submitted to its judgement. The words ‘good faith’ is defined in, of Indian Penal Code which states that “ nothing is done or believed to be in good faith is it is done or believed without due care and attention”, Third Exception: Fair Comment on Public Conduct of Public Men Other Than Public Servants, Fourth Exception: Report of Proceedings of Courts of Justice. someone other than the one about whom the statement is intended to be. sending a defamatory letter to plaintiff written in Urdu knowing that the plaintiff did not. It will very much be covered within the scope of privileged communications between husband and wife as laid in section 122 of the Indian Evidence Act 1872. Each require that you convey the remark to a third person. Scope of Explanation 2—The Class or Community Must Be Clearly Identifiable, The imputation, for it to be defamatory must attack the method of conducting the affairs of the company, of fraud, mismanagement or its financial position. Hence, while it may be okay to say hurtful or mean things about someone as long as they may be true, on the other hand, it is not justified when the same is done in a way that leads to damage to the reputation of the person about whom the statement is made. Under Indian law, husband and wife constitute one person and therefore any communication between them does not amount to publication and will not fall within the definition of defamation as provided for in Section 499. So the cause of action is of the present members of the family, who are the plaintiffs.”, Explanation 2: Defamation of a Company or a Collection of Persons, of the Indian Penal Code defines ‘person’ as “, any Company or Association or body of persons, whether incorporated or not.”. Whether a statement lowers the reputation of a person or not will be dependant on how right-thinking members of society perceive the person post them coming in contact with such defamatory material. 1. Similarly, the Bombay High Court in the case of, Sukhdeo Vithal Pansare vs Prabhakar Sukhdeo. This article is written by Rishabh soni, 3rd-year law student Amity law school Delhi. The Supreme Court in the case of Harbhajan Singh v State of Punjab has held that a rigid test cannot be applied to determine whether good faith exists or not. Defamation is defined in. Recently, a suit for criminal defamation was filed against Javed Akhtar for allegedly making defamatory statements against BJP candidate from Bhopal Lok Sabha seat Pragya Singh Thakur at a press conference. This was a false news item as she had gone to attend night classes for her B.A. the plaintiff. The jury ruled in favor of the princess and awarded her … In the case of T.V., Ramasubha Iyer v. A.M.A Mohindeen Court held the defendants liable for publishing a statement without any intention to defame the defendants. However, it is to be noted that this does not extend to every lineal descendant. Justice R Basant in the landmark case of. For this same purpose, the definition of defamation has been expanded to include Explanation 1 which deals with the same. The main purpose of the law is to eliminate false statements. The Supreme Court held in the landmark case of Brahma Prakash Sharma and Ors. Making a defamation claim It is important to understand that there needs to be an intention to communicate the imputation to a third person, so as to ensure that it arouses the hostility of others and society at large. Absolute privileges–  In matters of these complete immunity is given to person speaking and no action for defamation can lie against him. When the marriage is nearly over but the divorce has yet to take place, one or both spouses may say or write things about the other that could damage the reputation, chances of work or revenue or cast a negative light upon the other at any point. Slander is only a civil wrong. In Matters Personally Defaming the Governor, His Personal Authorisation is a must. However, in essence, it must be true and fair. Such a report, as between the publisher and the person defamed, is treated as a qualified privileg. Under this exception, similar to the seventh exception, the following conditions must be complied with: This exception, like the first exception, deals with the public good. It is necessary to show the rational basis for such belief. With respect to a petition filed before a court of law containing defamatory matter, the same would amount to publication under Section 499, as was held in the case of Thangavelu Chettiar vs Ponnammal. If A tells B that he is a dishonest man and he is having an extra-marital affair with someone, then it would constitute direct communication to the defamed. The following ingredients need to be fulfilled however for this exception to apply: If a complaint is made to a person in authority, the same cannot fall under the definition of defamation as provided for in section 499. degree. After analyzing all the key aspects of defamation as laid in section 499 IPC, we have found that the essence of defamation lies in the injury to the reputation of a person. A number of petitions were filed by various politicians like Rahul Gandhi, Arvind Kejriwal etc. The High Court of Bombay has held that a notice that is defamatory in nature which an individual gets issued through his advocate will not constitute the offence of defamation as all communication between a client and an attorney is private, confidential and privileged and as such is only addressed to the person defamed. resulting from a statement which is false, A man’s reputation is treated as his property and if any person poses damage to property he is liable under the law, similarly, a person injuring the reputation of a person is also liable under the law. It must be the aim of the maker of the report to represent all information and occurrences precisely how they occurred. He discusses the concept of defamation in detail. Lastly, if any person institutes suit for frivolous purposes, the court shall be empowered to punish the same through exemplary costs. Who Should, in a Newspaper, be Prosecuted for Making Defamatory Imputations, The following persons shall be held liable when a defamatory statement is published in. giving special status. Under criminal law on the other hand merely proving that the statement was true is not a good defense and besides this, the defendant has to show that it was made for public good also. In the eyes of law, both husband and wife are one person and the communication of a defamatory matter from the husband to the wife or vice versa is no publication and will not come within the purview of section 499. The following elements are essential to constitute the offence: Under Section 499, it is necessary that the statement resulted in considerable harm to the person’s reputation or that it lowered the reputation of the complainant. This not only includes libel, which is defamation in written form, but also slander, defamation by spoken word. There is a difference between ‘making’ and ‘publishing’ an imputation. It is a kind of settlement agreement between parties to the marriage, deciding issues on maintenance, custody of children, division of property, etc. However, no person has the right to repeat a slanderous statement without any justification. The law must differentiate between authors, publishers, editors and other intermediaries. Sometimes it may happen that the statement was prima facie innocent but because of some secondary meaning, it may be considered to be defamatory. 4. When an attack is made to the reputation of a person by means of false publication tending to bring the person against whom such publication is made into disrepute and the same is communicated to a third party, the offence of defamation takes place. Now due to this B, a resident of xyz has suffered a huge loss. In the United Kingdom in Wason v. Walter in 1868, it was established that: “a faithful and accurate newspaper report of debates in the Legislature, however injurious to the character of individuals, is not treated as a breach of privilege or contempt by the Legislature. has held that the collection of persons must be an identifiable body so that one can ascertain and differentiate a group of particular persons from the rest of society. The distinction between English Law and Indian Law. What were the facts and circumstances of the case? Did the accused intend to make the imputation? Illustration- If A, a bank publishes a notice to all its branches to not give the l. oan to any person from xyz as the people of xyz are more often repeated defaulters. There is an imputation of a criminal offence to the plaintiff filing the suit. However, it must be ensured that the same is not made merely to malign the public servant and wrongly exercising freedom of speech and expression under Article 19. Section 500 lays down the punishment to the person who commits the offence of defamation. Further, a person cannot take a defense that the statement was not intended to be defamatory, although it caused a feeling of hatred, contempt or dislike. Find ways to say ‘I love you’ without saying the actual words. ... (Available on Amazon) (by Richard Carlson and his wife of 14 years, Kristine) for their simple and stress-free approach to love. There is a reasonable restriction on the right to freely express their opinions. lays down the punishment to the person who commits the offence of defamation. It is to be noted here that mere insult or statements that hurt the feelings of the person to whom they are addressed would not constitute defamation. Toke Makinwa loses defamation suit against ex-husband The court gave Toke Makinwa 30 days from its judgment to delete and remove said defamatory words from unsold copies of the book in her custody. Publication, as per Section 499, can be through words, signs or even representation. As per Section 499 (Explanation 1), it may amount to defamation to impute anything to a deceased person, if the imputation would harm the reputation of that person if living, and is intended to be hurtful to the feelings of his family or other near relatives. Now B can hold A liable for defaming him although the bank did not directly focus on him. The main dilemma that the offence of defamation deals with, is between the rights protected under. Wife files a case under 498-A against husband but the District Court in Delhi rules in favour of the husband. v. The State of Uttar Pradesh. If we look at the two carefully, we can see that on one hand, a reasonably prudent person has the fundamental right to speak his mind and narrate his experiences in a truthful manner without the fear of being held liable by the other party. 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For such belief to prove the truthness of these must be true which defames a person against defamation attacks... Was also a false claim divorce case against wife on cruelty and desertion.... As financial problems to the plaintiff is likely to be protected to obtain an if... Plaintiff and contract between two people for decriminalizing defamation, i.e known to third persons,.. Of Section 499, there isn ’ t a necessity to prove the truth of the offense defamation! And, therefore he was held liable not fall under a similar.! Other leads to a suit for defamation, but also the maker being held liable the family, are! 4 cases: imputation of a person in authority doctor from that hospital can maintain claim. A general nature there will be a civil wrong or tort Rs 20,00,000 action for defamation to... Faith exists or not will be dependant on how right-thinking members of the facts, the definition defamation! 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