904-NMS-1220-15-F4.DOC
special right or privilege in civil law, and I am mindful of the fact
that while the Defendants have attempted to place this in the
context of a fundamental right to freedom of expression and
Constitutional guarantees, that is not my direct remit in a civil suit,
though Courts seem to have often juxtaposed the two concerns. If
the imputation or the conclusion remains unwarranted by the facts,
it cannot be fair comment. The Defendants must show, to claim a
qualified privilege, that they had some duty public or private, legal,
moral or social to their intended audience. They must show they
had a duty to convey the information. They must also show that the
information that they conveyed was published in the context of this
moral, social or other duty, public or private, and that it was
relevant or pertinent to that duty and not completely alien to it. If
there is no discernible nexus between what is stated and what is
intended or what is now claimed to have been intended, the action
must succeed. This is true whether or not the target audience is a
select niche audience or the public at large. Dr. Tulzapurkar also
refers to a Division Bench decision of the Calcutta High Court in
Tushar Kanti Ghose v Bina Bhowmick6 to much the same effect and
most importantly saying that fair comment is not the private
preserve of newspapers but is a right of other citizens and persons
in the country.
14.
In Shree Maheshwar Hydel Power Corporation Ltd. v Chitroopa
Palit & Anr.,7 a learned Single Judge of this Court 8 was concerned
with an expression said to be defamatory and contained in a press
note issued in some newspapers. This related to the Narmada River
6
7
8
57 CWN 378
2004 Vol. 106(1) Bom.L.R. 186
S. Radhakrishnan J, as he then was
13 of 30
::: Uploaded on - 10/09/2015
::: Downloaded on - 03/02/2020 18:08:37 :::