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Section 499 Indian Penal Code

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Introduction

According to the Indian Penal Code:

Whoever by words either spoken or intended to be

read, or by signs or by visible representations,makes or publishes any imputation concerning any

person intending to harm, or knowing or having

reason to believe that such imputation will harm,

the reputation of such person, is said, except in thecases hereinafter excepted, to defame that person

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Cyber Crime

Cyber crimes can involve criminal activities

that are traditional in nature, such as theft,

fraud, forgery, defamation and mischief, allof which are subject to the Indian Penal

Code

The abuse of computers has also given birthto a gamut of new age crimes that are

addressed by the Information Technology

Act, 20006

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Cyber Defamation

SMC Pneumatics (India) Pvt. Ltd. vs. Jogesh Kwatra:

Indias first case of cyber defamation was reported

when a companys employee (defendant) startedsending derogatory, defamatory and obscene e-mails

about its Managing Director

The e-mails were anonymous and frequent, and were

sent to many of their business associates to tarnish the

image and goodwill of the plaintiff company

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Cyber Defamation

The plaintiff was able to identify the defendant with the

help of a private computer expert and moved the Delhi

High CourtThe court granted an ad-interim injunction and

restrained the employee from sending, publishing and

transmitting e-mails, which are defamatory or

derogatory to the plaintiffs

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Media & Defamation

Restrictions on media: Under the Indian Constitution

The Supreme Court and High Courts are empowered to

intervene and punish the publication of any matter, whichcauses prejudice to a pending proceeding, to keep the

stream of justice clear and pure so that parties may proceed

with safety both to themselves and to their character

No person can flout the mandate of law of respecting the

courts for establishment of rule of law under the cloak offreedom of speech and expression guaranteed by the

Constitution

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Trial ByMedia

Nowadays, the sensationalism involved in certain

high profile criminal cases has become very

common with the spread of mass communicationExample can be taken from the recent Aarushi

murder case

Moreover, such media trials unnecessarily draw

the judiciary into the public scanner, often making

a mockery of the justice delivery system

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Case 1

Criminal Defamation Against

Tamil bi-weekly Junior

Vikatan

Vikatan had published article

against ChiefMinisterM.

Karunanidhi

Complaint was filed against

the author of the article andEditor, Printer and Publisher

Principal Session Judge P

Devdoss adjourned hearing in

the case 11

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Case 2

FIRagainst Vijaya Karnataka for Dalit abuse

FIRwas registered against Vijaya Karnataka

daily in Kavoor Police station

Vijaya Karnataka had published defamatory

and abusive artice against SC, ST lecturer of

Mangalore

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Case 2

Defamatory article was

published against Mangalore

university JournalismDepartment Lecturer

Umeshchandra

FIRwas registered underSC,

ST prevention of Atrocities Act

Even though FIRwas registered

once again the daily published

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Case 3

Kareena-Shahid photos not in good taste: SC

A debate over media ethics fueled by the media

releasing to the public the photographs of twoBollywood actors in an intimate posture reached

the Supreme Court

Two judges, hearing a case relating to media

rights, observed that it was not in good taste

A Bench comprisingMr Justice Y.K. Sabharwal

andMr Justice D.M. Dharmadhikari, hearing the

preliminary arguments15

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Case 3

The petitions, by the Hindu Editor N. Ravi and

others, were filed in the wake of several

defamation cases lodged by the Tamil NaduGovernment against them for allegedly publishing

defamatory news items and articles

The court further hinted at the need to create a

balance between public interest and defamation sothat the freedom was not stretched beyond limits

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Case 3

Earlier, when the petition was sought to be

dismissed as most of the cases had been

withdrawn by the Tamil Nadu Government,Advocate Salve highlighted the importance of the

issue that involved important question of law

especially with regard to press freedom

He stated We are a newspaper and we have toreport several happenings for public interest. We

cannot have Section 499 of the IPC always staring

at us. It has a chilling effect.17

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Case 4

Ahmedabad: A

defamation case has

been filed againstJanata Party leader

Subramanian Swamy

for allegedly using

slanderous languageagainst Congress

general secretary

Rahul Gandhi

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Case 4

The suit was filed by Gujarat Youth

Congress General Secretary Prakash Gurjar

in the Court ofMetropolitan Magistrate,B.T. Dave

The complaint has been filed under section

499(Defamation) of the Indian Penal Code(IPC)

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Case 5

Defamation case against A.RRahman and Anil

Kapoor

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Case 5

In a complaint filed before a local court in

Mumbai Tapeshwar Vishwakarma, general

secretary ofSlum-dwellers Joint ActionCommittee, has alleged that the film depicted

slum-dwellers in bad taste as it used the

derogatory and objectionable title 'Slumdog

Millionaire' thus calling Indians dogs and slumdwellers slum dogs, which is defamatory

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Case 5

The meaning of 'SlumdogMillionaire' in Hindi is

the millionaire dog of slum-dwellers,

Vishwakarma alleged, adding that such a namewas a violation of human rights and honour

Vishwakarma said he has already approached the

national and state human rights commissions for

necessary action against Rahman and Kapoor,who portrays the role of a game show host in the

film

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Case 6

Tamil actress Khushboo

Interview to English periodical

India Today in September

2005Degenerating remarks against

Tamil women, spoke of pre-

marital sex etc

A bench of Chief Justice K.G.

Balakrishnan, Justice R.V.

Raveendran and Justice M.K.

Sharma 23

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Case 7

School teacher Uma

Khurana accused of running

a sex racket

Complaint against Sudhir

Choudhary, CEO of TV

channel Live IndiaFake Sting operation that

stirred violence in Sarvoday

Kanya Vidyalaya 24

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Case 8

Shah Rukh

Khan vs.

State ofRajasthan

and Ors.

Dated:

20/8/2007Movie: Ram

Jaane

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Case 8

Complaint against: Shah Rukh Khan

(Actor), Rajeev Mehra (Director), Pravesh

Mehra (Producer), the Co-Script-writer, thefemale lead, the distributors forRajasthan

and for India

Defamation of the lawyer community due toShah Rukh Khans statement in the movie

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Conclusion

Defamation law doesn't work well to protect

reputations

It prevents the dialogue and debate which isnecessary to seek the truth

Published statements - including libellous ones - are

open, available to be criticised and refuted

The worst part of defamation law is its chilling effect

on free speech

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Conclusion

Thus, Section 499 has different sub-sections and

categories, which were evident through these few cases

In the contemporary society, defamation has got severalaspects to itself. People have become increasingly aware

of the Legal system and are rising against such injustice

Hence, we, as media students, need to understand the

system ourselvesBeing aware of your rights and observing some simple

guidelines can help you make informed choices about

what to say and publish

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Thank You !