Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

14. Further it appears clear from the words of Clause (2) of Article 194 of the Constitution that no publication of reports is protected unless such is a publication authorised by the Legislature, Protection by this Article is only given to one class of reports and by the ordinary rule of construction it must be held that no other class of reports is protected. Expressio unius exclusio alterius.

15. As this report is not protected by anything in the Constitution the ordinary law of the land must apply. It was urged by Mr. Sudhansu Mukherjee that reports of proceedings in a Legislature are the subject of a qualified privilege and he relied upon the well-known English decision in Wason v. Walter, (1869) 4 Q B. 73, in which it was held that a faithful report in a public newspaper of a debate in either House of Parliament, containing matter disparaging to the character of an individual which had been spoken in the course of the debate is not actionable at the suit o the person whose character has been called in question. But the publication is privileged on the same principle as an accurate report of proceedings in a Court of justice is privileged, viz,, that the advantage of publicity to the community at large outweighs any private injury resulting from the publication.