KRISHNAMAL Vs. KRISHNAIYANGAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The question referred to us is whether a defamatory statement made by a person opposing the registration of a will in his petition to the Registrar objecting to the registration is absolutely privileged so as to exempt the party making it from liability to be punished for an offence, under Section 499 Indian Penal Code.

(2.) In Criminal Revision Case No. 216 of 1911 we expressed the opinion that a statement made by a prisoner in his defence was absolutely privileged and we based this opinion upon the ground that the English rule of common law, that anything said in the course of a judicial proceeding before a Court of competent jurisdiction by counsel, witness or party was absolutely privileged, applied in India. The question put to us is limited to a statement made by a person opposing the registration of a will. Our answer to this question must, in the first instance, depend on the view we take on the general - question as to whether a registration officer is a Court so as to render proceedings before him absolutely privileged.

(3.) What we should look to, in considering this question, as it seems to me, is the general scheme and purpose of the Registration Act and not the special proceedings under particular sections.