Greeva Garg –
The Allahabad High Court has refused for claiming the benefit of the first exception i.e., the defence of public good under Section 499 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at the issuance of summons.
The Court held, “Defence of public good as the first exception to the offence of Defamation defined under Section 499 IPC, being a question of fact cannot be looked into during the stage of issuance of summons.”
The Bench of Justice Dr. Yogendra Kumar Srivastava stated that his exception recognizes the publication of truth as a sufficient justification if it is made for the public good.
The observation came in the matter where an application under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) was filed seeking to quash the Complaint case proceedings under Section 500 of the IPC. The Counsel for the applicant also sought to assail the order in terms of which the applicant had been summoned.
It was contended that the infringement of law was only in amount to be covered under the exception to Section 499 of the IPC, which would not amount to defamation.
Regarding the stage of issuance of summons, the Court noted, “At the stage of issuing process the Magistrate is mainly concerned with the allegations made in the complaint or the evidence led in support of the same and he is only to be prima facie satisfied whether there are sufficient grounds for proceedings against the accused.”
The Court ruled, “The question whether or not the imputation was made for public good would therefore be a question of fact which would be required to be proved by the accused to seek the benefit of the first exception to Section 499.“
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