Definition
A person who, through spoken or legible words, symbols, or visual representations, makes or publishes any allegations about that person with intent to damage that person's reputation, or knowing that such allegations will harm A person who is, or has reason to believe, except: In the following cases, slander the person.

Any intentional false communication, whether written or oral, that damages a person's reputation;

Alternatively, eliciting disparaging, hostile, or offensive opinions or feelings towards someone is called defamation.

There are two type of defamation

Criminal Defamation:

Defamation is the act of insulting or defaming a person for a felony or violation. In the case of criminal defamation, he may at any time have prosecute the person or party responsible. It is being investigated by the IPC as a criminal act.

Civil Defamation:

Civil defamation is not a criminal offence, but for this type of defamation you can sue the other party for legal compensation for defamation. It is studied as tort law, i.e. civil tort.

Libel and Slander

Libel is representation in a durable form, such as text, film, or images. example A was a representation of him in a particular format because he printed an ad that said D was bankrupt but D was not.

Slander, on the other hand, is the making of defamatory statements in temporary form, such as spoken words or gestures. For example, E is defamatory if E asks about B's chastity in an interview.

Youssoupoff v. MGM Pictures Ltd

Plaintiff alleged that she could identify with the character Princess Natasha in the movie "Rasputin the Mad Monk." Defendant argued that if the film revealed Rasputin's relationship with "Natasha", it indicated Natasha's rape, not seduction.

Heroes:
Movies In film, not only the photographic part is considered defamatory, but also the words that are in sync with it. Defamation can include language that alienates or alienates a person. So she was awarded Damages.

D.P. Choudhary v. Kumari Manjulata

Plaintiff - Defendant Manjurata, aged about 17, belongs to a respected family and holds a bachelor's degree. A message appeared in her local daily, Dainik Navjyoti, that she ran away last night with a boy named Kamlesh. But she had gone to to take her evening class. The news was not true and was published completely irresponsibly and carelessly. She was shocked and made fun of by others's lawsuit was found to be defamatory and she was entitled to her 10000 rupee damages as general damages to her

Essential Of Defamation:

There are three main characteristics of slander. That is:

1. The statement must or should avoid the person.
   The criteria used are those of the Citizens of Justice. An impartial person of average intelligence who is not that of a particular class of people whose values ​​are not shared or recognized by fair-minded members of her society.
   
   Ramdhara v. Phulwatibai
   The Defendant's insinuation that the Applicant, a widow of years, was the keeper of the Applicant's daughter-in-law's maternal uncle, was not merely vulgar abuse, but a crucial innuendo of her chastity, It was therefore found to constitute slander.
   
   South Indian Railway Co. v. Ramakrishna
   A railroad ticket inspector who asks for identification or other documents as part of his or her duties is not defamatory because he has not issued a defamatory statement.
    
2. Statement Must Relate to Plaintiff A defendant is liable even if the person to whom the statement is made public could reasonably conclude that the statement relates to the plaintiff.
   
   Newstead v. London Express Newspapers Ltd
   Defendant published an article stating that "Harold Newsted, Man of Camberwell" was convicted of bigamy. The defamation lawsuit was brought by another Harold Newsted, 's barber. Defendants are liable, as the term should be understood to refer to plaintiffs.
   
   Harsh Mendiratta v. Maharaj Singh
   In this case it was said that defamation actions can only be supported by the person being defamed and not by friends or relatives.
    
3. Defamation Must Be Published
   Disclosure means making the defamatory matter known to a person other than the person to whom the defamation is being made, otherwise it will not be a civil defamation action.
   
   Mahender Ram v. Harnandan Prasad
   In the case of Mahender Ram v. Harnandan Prasad a defamatory letter was written to the plaintiff in Urdu and the plaintiff asked it to be read by a third party if the plaintiff did not know Urdu. It is said. unless it is proved that the defendant knew that the plaintiff did not know Urdu at the time he wrote Letter.

Defence Available
There are three defence of defamation:

1. Justification or Truth
   In criminal law, mere proof that a statement is true is not a defense, whereas in civil law, mere proof of truth is a valid defence. Alexander v. NE RLY plaintiff, had been convicted of taking a train from Leeds without purchasing a valid ticket for him. If he did not comply with the fine, the penalty was a fine and 14 days in prison. However, after conviction, the defendant released his notice that the plaintiff was convicted and, if defaulted, fined or he was sentenced to three weeks in prison.
   
   Plaintiff alleged that Defendant committed defamation by misrepresenting the penalty imposed on him. Defendants argued that Judgment was described with substantial and sufficient accuracy and that its words were not defamatory so long as they differed in literal meaning from the words in Judgment.
   
   The essence of defamation was that plaintiff was ordered to pay a large sum, and if he failed to pay he was sentenced to imprisonment. Blackburn J. pointed out that the libel content was true, but question was whether what was inaccurately stated was the essence of the libel.
    
2. Free Consent:
   
   1. Comments are statements of opinion, not statements of fact.
   2. Comments must be fair. In other words, there is no malice.
   3. Issues commented on must be of public interest.
       
3. Privilege
   There are certain occasions when the law recognizes the right to freedom of speech outweighs the plaintiff's right to reputation, the law treats those occasions as 'Privileged'.

These are further of two types:

1. Absolute privilege:
   No action lies for the defamatory statement even though the statement is false or made maliciously. It applies to : Parliamentary Privilege, Judicial proceeding and State communication.
    
2. Qualified privilege:
   It is necessary that the statement must have been without malice. The defendant has to prove that statement was made on a privileged occasion fairly.

Conclusion:
Defamation is tort resulting from defamation. It is an act of making a false statement to a third party and defaming the reputation of another person. Defamation is damage to reputation. Defamation laws are meant to protect people's reputations from unjustifiable attacks. In practice, its primary effect is to hinder freedom of expression and protect those in power from scrutiny. Defamation laws allow people to sue anyone who says or posts false, hateful comments.

Written By:

1. Gauri Singh
2. Daksh Goel