Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

25. Several cases were cited by the plaintiff, of which the most important is the case of Parvathi v. Mannar (1884) I.L.R. 8 Mad. 175 in which it was held at Madras by Sir Charles Turner, C. J., and Muthusami Ayyer, J., that words imputing unchastity to a woman were actionable without proof of special damage. The learned Judges after pointing out that the cases on the subject are conflicting, condemn the rule of law, which enable damages to be recovered for the publication of written defamatory matter without proof of actual injury, while it calls for that proof in the case of oral slander; and, in holding that the action will lie, say the true test of the right to maintain the suit should be whether the defamatory expressions were sued at a time and under such circumstances as to induce in the person defamed a reasonable apprehension that his reputation has been injured, and to inflict on him the pain consequent on such a belief " and further they say that the person, who deliberately defames another, ought to be made responsible in damages for the mental suffering his wrong-doing occasions.