NOORJAHANBEN IQBALBHAI TADHA Vs. ISMAILBHAI ABDULRAHIM SHAIKH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Looking to the narrow compass of the issue arising from the contents of the impugned judgment in the order, the appeal could be taken up finally, at this stage.

(2.) Preferred by the original defendants, this First Appeal under Sec. 96 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, is directed against judgment and decree dtd. 31/3/2021 passed by learned 5th Additional Senior Civil Judge, Vadodara in Special Civil Suit No.106 of 2018, thereby the court below awarded Rs.5.00crores to the respondent- original plaintiff as damages for defamation by the defendants.

(3.) It was the case that plaintiff was reputed person possessing several properties and had been running since years the Kohinoor Transport Company now known as Jayhind Roadways. It was alleged that the plaintiff hired persons and started distributing material and pamphlets stating that the plaintiff had killed his father in order to grab the ancestral properties. It was stated that such defamatory pamphlets were distributed at the mosques of Vadodara, Modasa and Mumbai. It was averred that pamphlets with photographs were distributed amongst the community persons coming to the mosques so as to disseminate defamatory allegations against the plaintiff about killing of father, taking of ancestral property and injuring his own sister.