Defamation is usually levelled by those who have a community image, such as celebrities, famous writers or journalists, people holding high offices, eminent professionals, etc. Defamation is the book of a declaration which reflects on a person’s standing and tends to lower him in the approximation of right-thinking members of society generally or tends to make them avoid or avoid him.
Thus defamation essentially must achieve the following requirements:
- Publication could mean both oral and written forms publication which makes the insulting matter known to someone other than the person being defamed. But the warning is that the person being insulted himself comprehends the language in which he is being defamed.
- The defamatory statement should be damaging to the reputation of the person against whom charges have been made or creates circumstances where the person being defamed is shunned or avoided by the people.
The two types of defamation
Civil and Criminal: In civil an individual who is defamed can move either High Court or secondary courts and seek damages in the form of financial compensation. There is no penalty in the form of jail sentence. In criminal defamation, the person against whom an insult case is filed might be sentenced to two years’ custody or penalized or both.
Section 499: Insult — by words either spoken or envisioned to be read, or by signs or by visible representations, makes or issues any charge about any person meaning to harm, except in the cases hereinafter expected, to defame that individual.
Explanation 1: It may amount to insult a deceased person, if the charge would harm the standing of that person if living, and is intended to be upsetting to the feelings of his family.
Explanation 2: It may amount to defamation to make a charge concerning a company or an association or collection of persons as such.
Explanation 3: A alleges in the form of an option or spoken paradoxically, may amount to defamation.
Section 500: Whoever insults another shall be punished with simple custody for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both. One of the major exclusions to defamation is if what is being alleged is the absolute truth and is for the public good. The criminality of defamation was challenged in the Supreme Court in 2015. The disagreement was that it was an unreasonable restriction on the constitutionally-guaranteed right to freedom of speech and expression.