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Kishore Balkrishna Nand vs. State of Maharashtra & Anr.

Criminal Appeal · 2023 INSC 675Decided 2 Aug 2023
Criminal Appeal No. 2291 of 2011
J.B. Pardiwala · Manoj Misra

Background

The appellant had written a formal complaint to a Sub-Divisional Magistrate alleging that the respondent had encroached on land to build a shop that was attracting anti-social elements and causing nuisance. The respondent then filed a private criminal complaint for defamation against the appellant, and a Magistrate took cognizance and issued process. After years of litigation, including the Magistrate initially recalling the process, a Sessions Court reversing that recall, and the appellant unsuccessfully challenging the original summons in the High Court eight years later on grounds of delay: the matter reached the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that no offence of defamation was made out at all. It relied on the Eighth Exception to Section 499 IPC, which protects an accusation made in good faith to a person who has lawful authority over the person accused: here, a complaint to the SDM about an encroachment and nuisance. Since the complaint was addressed to a public authority in that capacity and not published to the world at large, and the allegations themselves did not disclose the ingredients of defamation, the Court found the Magistrate had erred in taking cognizance. The appeal was allowed, the High Court's order was set aside, and the underlying criminal case was quashed.

Lesson Learnt

A citizen who reports a genuine grievance (such as land encroachment or public nuisance) to a competent authority like an SDM, in good faith and without wider publication, is legally protected from a defamation complaint by the person accused in that report: this is what the "good faith complaint to authorised person" exception exists for.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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