Defamation Laws in India

A person’s reputation is as a property. In some cases more important than other properties. It
becomes a civil responsibility of a person, not to harm the reputation of another.
 
Defamation is the action of damaging one’s good reputation in the form of oral statements or
published format. The key essential of defamation is that the third person should have heard
or read the passed comments about the person been referred to in them. 
 
A person who has been defamed can only, move to the court for an adequate remedy, the
person seeks. A defamation suit is not maintainable in the court of law via any legal
representative or family member. A case of defamation can be filed in a civil court and under
the fulfillment of special circumstances, the case can be also filed in a criminal court.
 
Constitution of India has guaranteed Liberty of thoughts and expression through its preamble.
Liberty cannot be ultimate, it always has a certain limitation. Defamation is a limitation on
the Liberty of Freedom of Speech.
 
When one’s freedom of speech exceeds the other person’s right to maintain one’s good
reputation, the case will be restricted to civil court, if there was no intention to defame the
other person. This would mean a civil court would cover all the damages caused due to
damage to reputation.
 
When there is an intent established for a defamation, which is intention to cause the loss of
the good name earned, or hurt the reputation with its proximate cause to be such as loss of
deal or a business, by falsely misrepresenting the competition, which might cause special
monetary damages, fraud or intentional cause of hurt to one’s hard-earned good name, which
are beyond the jurisdiction of the civil courts. 
 
There are situations when everything being said is defamatory, but the exception to the
punishment prescribed for defaming someone intentionally is also mentioned in the Indian
Penal Code. According to the sections of IPC, a person who thinks it is reasonable to speak or
deliver the statements in printed format, justifying oneself by that they felt duty-bound, to
deliver it, in order of greater good towards the interest of the society or the community they
intend to protect.
 
Written, printed or photographs in a magazine, internet blog, articles or any such mass
communication would constitute to libel kind of defamation. The other kind of defamation is
slander, which consists intangible form of communication which would be in the form of
spoken words or gesture, in a speech or a news broadcast. 
 
To summarize, defamation is harming one’s good reputation by making false statements. To
hold the case of defamation the plaintiff has to show that the defamatory statement was made,
second, such statement referred to the plaintiff, third such statement was communicated to a
third party who understood it, fourth, this statement damaged the plaintiff’s reputation and
finally, all the statements made were false. 
 
The most important thing about defamation is that only the person whose reputation is
damaged can sustain the case in any court of law.