"A person has a right to speak freely, but at the same time it comes with certain restriction." A defamatory statement is a statement calculated to expose a person to hatred, contempt or ridicule or to injure him in his trade, business, profession, calling or office, or to cause him to be shunned or avoided in society for maintaining a suit for a defamation it is necessary that the plaintiff must have suffered some injury to his reputation.

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DEFAMATION: Meaning & Nature

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Salmond : “A civil wrong for which the remedy is a common law action for unliquidated
damages, and which is not exclusively the breach of a contract or the breach of a trust or
other merely equitable obligation”
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Winfield : “A defamatory statement is a statement calculated to expose a person to hatred,
contempt or ridicule or to injure him in his trade, business, profession, calling or office, or to
cause him to be shunned or avoided in society for maintaining a suit for a defamation it is
necessary that the plaintiff must have suffered some injury to his reputation”

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General INTRODUCTION
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Any intentional false communication,
either written or spoken , that harms a
person’s reputation; decreases the
respect, regard or confidence in which
a person is held; or induces
disparaging, hostile or disagreeable
opinions or feelings against a person is
known as defamation
Defamation may be committed either by way of writing (or its equivalent), or by way of speech
TWO FORMS
LIBEL
SLANDER
The term ‘slander’ for the speech
Libel is a written and slander is a
spoken defamation

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LIBEL
Sorensen v. Wood (123 Neb. 348, 243 N.W. 82)
Defamatory words read aloud by speaker from written
article and broadcast by radio constitute libel
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Ajouelo v. Auto-Soler Co., 61 Ga.App. 216, 6 S.E.
In its most general sense any publication that is
injurious to the reputation of anotherBlack’s law dictionary
“A method of defamation
expressed by print, writing,
pictures, or signs”
A libel is a publication of false and defamatory statement in permanent form tending
to injure the reputation of another person without lawful justification or excuse

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INGREDIENTS
1. The statement must be false
2. It must be in permanent form
The burden of proof is on the defendant to prove that the statement is
true
It may even be in conveyed n the form of cinema film or a gramophone
record
Youssoupoff v. Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures Ltd
Monson v Tussauds [1894] 1 Q.B. 671
The major tourist attraction Madame Tussauds was subject to a
defamation trial in 1894 after a wax work of John Monson holding a gun
was displayed in the museum, close to the “Chamber of Horrors”.
Monson had been subject to a murder trial however was set free with the
verdict of “not proven”. The case established the principle of “libel by
innuendo” and confirmed that a wax statue was capable of being libel by
suggesting Monson to be guilty of murder
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3. It must be defamatory

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SLANDER
Black’s law dictionary : “The
speaking of base and defamatory
words tending to prejudice another
in his reputation, office, trade,
business, or means of livelihood”
Allen v. American Indemnity Co., 63
Ga. App. 894, 12 S.E.2d 127, 128
An oral defamation, heard only by one
who does not understand the language
in which it is spoken, is not "slander"
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A slander is a false and defamatory verbal statement tending to injure the reputation of another without lawful
justification or excuse. By reputation is meant the opinion of the world in general
A matter is defamatory when it lowers
the plaintiff in the esteem of others or
causes him to be shunned by the
society
Law of Torts

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Slander : INGREDIENTS
1. The matter complained of must be
defamatory
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2. It must be false
3.It must refer to the plaintiff
4. It must be published by the defendant
5. There must be a special damage to the plaintiff

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Special cases where slander is actionable per se and special damages need not be proved
01
Accusation of a
criminal offence
02
Accusation of
virulent disease
03
Imputation
against office,
profession or
trade
04
Unchastity in
woman or girl
05
Aspersion on
caste
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Slander actionable per se

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Difference Between
Slander & Libel
• Oral or transient form
SLANDER
• Written or permanent form
LIBEL
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Law of Torts
• Not actionable per say in all s cases
• May be uttered in the heat of the
moment
• In every case of publication of slander the
publisher is liable
• Actionable per se in all cases
• The actual publisher of the libel may not
be liable
• Shows greater deliberation and raises a
suggestion of malice

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REQUISITES OF DEFAMATION
The statement must be
defamatory
01
It exposes the plaintiff
to hatred, contempt,
ridicule or obloquy
01
A statement shall be defamatory if
Tends to injure him in his profession or trade
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1. that the evidence would have justified a finding by the jury that
reasonable persons would have understood the words complained of to
refer to the plaintiff; and
CASE : Newstead v. London Express (1940) 1 K.B. 377)
A newspaper published an account of a trial for bigamy and referred to the
prisoner as "Harold Newstead, thirty-year-old Camberwell man." The account was
true as regards a Camberwell barman of that name, but was not true as regards the
plaintiff. The plaintiff brought an action for libel against the proprietors of the
newspaper
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2. that, assuming the words complained of were capable of a meaning
defamatory of the plaintiff, the fact that they were true of another person
did not afford a good defence to the defendants
HELD

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The statement must
refer to the plaintiff
02
The plaintiff must prove that the statement refers to
him. It is however not necessary that the defendant
intended to refer it to the plaintiff
E. Hulton & Co. v. Jones
Defendant printed an article that accused a man named Artemus Jones of adultery. In the article, Artemus was
a churchwarden who resided at Peckham. Plaintiff was a lawyer named Thomas Artemus Jones of North
Wales. Defendant never heard of Plaintiff and had used the name Artemus Jones as a fictitious name. Plaintiff
produced witnesses who said they had read the article and thought that it referred to Plaintiff
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HELD: The fact that Defendant did not intend to defame Plaintiff is not a defense to the claim of libel

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The statement must
be published
03
“Publication” in this context, means
making the matter known to some
person other than the plaintiff
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The statement must
be false
04
No civil action lies for the publication
of a defamatory action which is true

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DEFENCES FOR DEFAMATION
1. Justification (or truth)
2. Fair and bona fide
comment
It is immaterial that the defendant made a defamatory statement
without knowing of its truth , as long as it turns out to be true when
made (a) Mere belief in the truth of the statement is however no
defence
The word ‘fair’ encompasses the meaning of ‘honest and
relevant’
When a person stands in such a relation to the facts of the case
that he is justified in saying or writing what would be defamatory
in the case of anyone else, he is said to have a privilege:
Two Types: (a) Absolute (b) Qualified
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3. Privilege

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Reference Book
D.D. Basu, The Law Of Torts ,Kamal , Calcutta
Ratanlal And Dhirajlal, The Law of Tort, Universal ,Delhi
J.N Boriwala, Commentary on Consumer Protection
Act,1986,Universal ,Delhi
Salmond and Heuston –On the Law of Torts
(2000)Universal, Delhi
D. M. Gandhi , Law Of Tort, Eastern Lucknow
P.K Majumdar, The Law of Consumer Protection In India
(1998),Orient Publishing Co., New Delhi
R. M Vats, Consumer and The law(1994),Universal ,Delhi
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