RAKESH BHATIA Vs. ASHWANI KUMAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE respondent is the uncle of the petitioner. He wrote a letter containing some insinuations against the character of the petitioner to the father of the latter. On the basis, the petitioner filed a complaint under section 500 I.P.C. in the court of the learned Judicial Magistrate, 1st Class, Chandigarh, against the respondent.

(2.) ON the question of publication, the petitioner led evidence that the impugned letter was passed on by the father of petitioner to his mother, who got it read by Shri Tospashwar Chander Sharma P.W. 2, who appeared as a prosecution witness. The learned trial Magistrate observed that Topashwar Chander Sharma being a colleague of the petitioner could have easily come for to oblige him for that reason his evidence was not acceptable. On the question of publication, the learned trial Magistrate observed that the reading of a defamatory letter by the relation of the complainant did not constitute publication in the eyes of law. On this basis, he acquitted the respondent.

(3.) WE have heard the learned counsel for the parties. We are prima facie of the view that the learned trial Magistrate was not correct in observing that when a defamatory letter is read by a relation that does not constitute publication in the eyes of law. On this point, there is the firm authority of the Supreme Court in M.C. Verghese v. T.J. Ponnan and another, AIR 1970 S.C. 1876, wherein the letter had been written by the husband to his wife which had been read by the father of the latter and it was held that this constituted publication in the eyes of law. However, in the instant case, Topashwar Chander Sharma has been disbelieved by the learned trial Magistrate and admittedly the mother of the petitioner was an illiterate lady and she could not have read the letter herself. In this situation it was open to the learned trial Magistrate to come to the conclusion that this letter was not read by anybody. The aforementioned considerations apart, the respondent took up a plea that the petitioner had a quarrel with him at some marriage party while he was under the influences of drinks. Tenth Exception to section 499, I.P.C. reads as under :-