Damages -- Suit for defamation - Cause of action for defamation is a personal action and is governed by the principle actio personalis moritur cum persona - Cause of action for defamation does not survive after death of the person concerned, since relief claimed is personal in nature and becomes nugatory upon death - Legal position is thus : (i) If plaintiff dies before a..........
Defamation -- Suit for damages - Death of sole defendant after decreetal of suit during pendency of second appeal - Suit for damages already decreed and Court awarded damages to plaintiff - Liability has taken the form of a debt payable out of estate of deceased defendant - Even though original cause of action was personal in nature, proceedings cannot be treated as..........
Defamation -- Suit for damages - Alleged defamation is based on a complaint given by defendant to competent authority accusing the plaintiff, who is an Advocate of misconduct - Complaint was enquired into and was ultimately closed on the ground that documents were available in Court records - Mere fact that complaint was closed does not by itself, show that complaint was..........
Defamation -- Suit for damages - Doctrine of qualified privilege - Litigant who approaches a judicial or quasi-judicial authority with a complaint against an Advocate cannot in the absence of malice be made liable for defamation merely because complaint was ultimately not accepted, particularly when complaint was made only to competent authority and cannot be regarded as..........
Defamation -- Suit for damages - Doctrine of qualified privilege - When a person makes a complaint in good faith to proper authority for redressal of a grievance, such communication is protected under doctrine of qualified privilege...........
Defamation -- Suit for damages - Doctrine of qualified privilege - In a civil defamation case, it is not necessary to prove intention or malice - Where communication is protected by qualified privilege, absence or presence of malice becomes decisive and plaintiff has to prove express malice...........
Civil Procedure Code, 1908, Order 7, Rule 11 -- Rejection of plaint - Barred by limitation - Suit for recovery of damages for defamation - Period of limitation u/art 75 of Limitation Act would not get extended after expiry of one year from date of publication of libel - Suit is not within limitation prescribed u/art 75 of Limitation Act - Plaintiff even if proves all..........
Defamation -- Suit for damages for publishing defamatory statement - Statement that husband is going to marry for the second time during subsistence of first marriage amounts to general damages and is actionable per se...........
Civil Procedure Code, 1908, Order 39, Rule 1, 2 -- Ex parte ad interim injunction - Suit for defamation - Three-fold test of establishing (i) a prima facie case, (ii) balance of convenience and (iii) irreparable loss or harm, for the grant of interim relief is equally applicable to the grant of interim injunctions in defamation suits - However, this three-fold test must..........
Defamation -- Suit for defamation against publication of an article - In suits concerning defamation by media platforms and/or journalists, an additional consideration of balancing the fundamental right to free speech with the right to reputation and privacy must be borne in mind...........
