Defamation

Defamation is the act of injuring another’s reputation by any slanderous communication which may be written or the oral, or defamation is the wrong of maliciously injuring the good name of the another person, government, religion or the nation. Defamation is also known as disparagement, vilification, denigration, aspersion, slur, character assassination, detraction, smear, dirty laundry , opprobrium etc. these all word means the that a false statement is made about a person, government, religion or nation in order to harm the reputation. In the civil laws of the jurisdiction, defamation is treated as a crime rather than a civil wrong conduct. A person who intends to damage a person’s reputation is called a libel which means a written false statement which seeks to damage someone’s reputation or a slander which means a malicious statement which may be written or spoken especially one which is injurious to a person’s reputation. The great philosopher quoted about the defamation as:”For a man of honor Defamation is the worse than the death and it is considered to be the Great Evil”. Reputation s considered being an integral and most important part of the dignity of an individual and the right to reputation is inherent right guaranteed by the Article 21 and it is also called as the natural rights. In India the rights of the freedom of the speech and the expression which have been granted by the Article 19 (1)(a) of the Constitution of India, they are not absolute and it has imposed reasonable restrictions for exercising rights in the interest of the security of the state, friendly relations with the foreign states, public order, morality, contempt of the court and the defamation. The defamation laws only can protect the individual’s private interest and its reputation. In a country like India defamation can be viewed as a civil offense and it also may be considered as a criminal offense and it may be defined as the writing, publication and the speaking of a false statement which causes harm to a person’s reputation and a good name is damaged only for the sake of the private interest. In a civil defamation an individual has the right to move to the sub-ordinate courts, high court and to the Supreme Court for seeking his/her damages in the form of the monetary compensation from the person which accused. Under the Section of 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code, it provides an opportunity to the innocent to file a criminal case for the defamation against the one which accused him/ or her. When the accused person is proven to be the guilty then the punishment for such offense is imprisonment of around 2 years which can be extended up to 3 to 4 years or there is also a provision in the law in which the accused person has to pay the fine to the person. Under the criminal law, the person who accused the individual can get bail and this offense is a non-cognizable and compoundable offense.

In some countries, the defamation law are not the criminal laws which are rare and unique characteristic the defamation statement must be in a spoken or a written or in a published or visible manner and that statement must lower the morals of the victim and that statement is considered to be an unprivileged statement. In Civil Law if a person injures a reputation of an individual or a group or nation then that defamation falls under the law of the Torts, which imposes punishment in the form of damage awarded to the person which was accused. But there are some special cases in which the statements are not considered to be as defamation which are:”If a person makes any sort of the truth statement in the public interest then that statement is not considered to be a defamation statement”, “ If a person puts his or her opinion in the public regarding of a person and if that statement marks his or her character , but all these opinion is made in the public interest then that statement is not considered to be a defamation statement”, “If a person touches a public question through his opinion in the public interest then that statement is not considered to be a defamation statement”. This are some special cases when the statements are not considered to be of defamation one.  There are certain basic requirements for a successful defamation to be proved which are a follows: “First of all the presence of the defamatory content is required and that  content should not be manipulated and the defamatory content is defined as one calculated to injure the reputation of another by exposing the person to the hatred, contempt or the ridicule, and there is one test taken of that person who claims that he has been offended and that person needs to comprehend the defamation in an appropriate and in a relevant manner. Second the person who claim was accused he or she should be identified in that defamatory statement and that content must be clearly addressing a particular person for the defamation and there should not be any sort of the false claims made to injure a persons’ reputation. Third there must be publication of the defamatory statement either in the oral or the written context and unless the content is published then only the defamation act can be proven”.  In a civil suit, When all these conditions are satisfied a defamation suit can be filled against the person who accused and then the defendant has the right to plead a privilege or to take defense. If the defendant fails to defend his or her case then the defamation suit is successful.  In a criminal suit the intention to defame is an important element. This all are the requirements which are needed to prove that the defamation act was done and once the defamation act is proven the guilty person has no other option rather than to face the punishment.