Supreme Court of India

Jeffrey J. Diermeier and Anr. v. State of West Bengal & Anr.

Neutral citation

Reported as [2010] 7 S.C.R. 128

Bench D.K. Jain and H. L. Dattu JJ.

Decided 14 May 2010

INSC stands for INDIAN SUPREME COURT. A neutral citation scheme assigned by the Court itself, so a judgment can be cited without depending on a commercial law reporter. INSC is the neutral citation scheme assigned by the Supreme Court, so a judgment can be cited without depending on a commercial law reporter.

4 Supreme Court benches have cited this judgment.

What the Court ordered

We are of the opinion that A the High Court was right in refusing to quash the complaint under Section 500 IPC. The appeal, being devoid of any merit, is dismissed accordingly.

Judgment, page 26

From the headnote

Penal Code, 1860: c s. 499 - Defamation - Meaning and Ingredients of - Held: The offence of defamation is the harm caused to reputation of a person - To constitute "defamation'', there must be an imputation and such imputation must have been made with the intention of harming or knowing or having reason to 0 believe that it will harm the reputation of the person about whom it is made. s. 499, Tenth Exception - Charges of defamation - Ambit and scope of - Held: For invoking the aid of Tenth Exception to s.499 /PC, both "good faith" and "public good" have to be established by the accused -

Authorities it was built on

1981 Sewakram Sobhani v. R.K. Karanjia, Chief Editor, Weekly Blitz & Ors. cited by 6
1963 Jagir Kaur & Another v. Jaswant Singh cited by 5
1996 Shatrughna Prasad Sinha v. Rajbhau Surajmal Rathi and Ors. cited by 2

Where later benches applied it

2011 Punjab State Warehousing Corporation Faridkot v. M/s Sh. Durga Ji Traders & Ors. relied on
2023 M/s Iveco Magirus Brandschutztechnik Gmbh v. Nirmal Kishore Bhartiya & Anr referred to
2019 Google India Private Limited v. M/s. Visakha Industries referred to
2016 Subramanian Swamy v. Union of India, Ministry of Law & Ors. referred to

Of those, 1 relied on · 3 referred to

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