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Get Answers to all your Questions
Read the passage and answer the questions that follow.
Defamation is an injury to the reputation of a person. Rightly, law gives protection to man’s reputation as it gives protection to his life and property. “Defamation” has been recognised as a civil wrong in the Law of Torts. “Defamation” has been recognised as a criminal wrong in the Law of Crimes. The pain it causes, if nothing else may be enough to keep one man apart from another. It may provoke a breach of the peace and disturb public tranquillity. The law cannot, therefore allow it. All systems of jurisprudence have recognised reputation as one of the four cardinal rights of man, the other three being rights relating to person, property and liberty. Artificial persons also have reputation. Section 44 defines an injury as harm illegally caused to any person in body, mind, reputation or property. Harm which can be legally caused is not punishable. A man may suffer from the disclosure of the fact that he has been convicted of theft and public good may require such disclosure.
In the Criminal Law, the wrong-doer is punished with imprisonment or with fine or with both. In Indian Penal Code, the Section 499 defines-“Defamation”, and also gives ten exceptions for it, along with fifteen illustrations. Section 500 imposes punishment for defamation. Sections 501 and 502 also deal with printed defamatory matter. According to Section 500, whoever defames another shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both Nature of offence:
The offence under Section 500 in case of public servant is non-cognizable, bailable, compoundable with permission of the Court before which any prosecution of such offence is pending and triable by Court of Session and in any other case, non-cognizable, bailable, compoundable, and triable by Magistrate of the first class. According to Section 501, whoever prints or engraves any matter, knowing or having good reason to believe that such matter is defamatory of any person, shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which lay extend to two years, or with fine, or with both. According to Section 502, whoever sells or offers for sale any printed or engraved substance containing defamatory matter, knowing that it contains such matter, shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.
Question: X and Y are ardent book readers. They purchase the latest novel of the book written by their favourite author C. However, the book turns out not to be up to the mark, due to which they write their reviews criticising the novel publicly on social media platforms. The reviews go viral and C get to know about this. C also sees a decline in the sales of his novel due to the reviews. C files a suit for defamation against X and Y claiming damages. What is the best defence for X and Y?
X and Y can claim that they were not aware that the review would go viral
X and Y can claim that they meant no harm to sales
X and Y can claim that they are entitled to an opinion of the merits of the work of an author
X and Y have no valid defence and have to pay damages
Answers (1)
The publication of an author is subject to the opinions of the readers. It is irrelevant whether the bad review was true or not since opinions can vary from reader to reader. The review going viral is something that happened by chance, this is not the best defence as sales might have been hampered even if the close relations of X and Y didn't purchase the novel. The loss of sale is not something that X and Y can be liable for. Hence, the best defence would be option c.
