My ex employer and I had a mutual oral agreement to work..After brief argument after one and half month i quit the  place offered by him and resigned orally. Within a day’s time he has mailed 50 of our common acquaintances about our personal communications and has used the derogatory, defamatory  words like liar etc  thereby causing severe damage to my reputation .

q.1  can i file defamation suit against him under cyber crime.

q.2  can he defend himself under the defences available in sec 499 of IPC.

q.3  what can be the cost involved in it

q.4   how much damaged can b sought given the fact that the mail has caused serious damage to my reputation.

Yes you can file a defamation case against your ex employer. The basic ingredient of the defamation is that the defamer need to kave the KNOWLEDGE and the INTENTION to do so. Once you are able to prove the knowledge and the intention you have the upper hand and much obvious your advocate should be good enough to tackle the issue in the court of law. Tha amount of damages and advocates fees, you advocate shall be the best person to brief you. You have not mentioned from which state you belong. Hope your query is solved somewhat.

Thanks for the reply. I m from Mumbai.

 He is not even an employer...there was only a mutual discussion to provide my services as his wife is in maternity leave. in such context the e mail has come as a shocker especially since the mail has been marked in 'bcc' as a result of which phones are ringing from all quarters and i am not able to expalin my stand thru e mail....

Yes you can file