Hello, I am a senior citizen in a small town in Maharashtra and am a Paeditrician by training. I was working as an Honorary in a local Charitable hospital where I crossed swords with some local political bigwigs, the outcome of which is that I was assaulted by them and defamed by them in our local newspapers, in 2005.
Besides belatedly filing a criminal complaint against them, I also filed a suit for Defamation under the Law of Torts, in our District Court.
This Defamation suit is now being heard. During my cross-examination, I was asked (in Marathi) whether 167 people of the village had any complaints against me... that was the format of the Question.
I answered in the affirmative, because they had indeed given false complaints about me.
However, when I obtained the certified copy of my Cross-examination, I was shocked to find that my answer had been recorded (again in Marathi) in a way that said "there were complaints given about me by 167 people of the village and I accept them".
My answer, which had been in the form of just one word "Yes" as per the rules of cross-examination, was dictated by the Judge as " I accept that there were complaints given against me by 167 people of the village".
I obtained a certified copy of my Deposition (just out of routine habit) before the next date of hearing and on the date of the next hearing, I pointed out the discrepency in the meaning that had cropped up in the recording of my Deposition.
However (for reasons which are not difficult to guess) the Judge said that there was no legal provision to change what was recorded in the Deposition.
Obviously, if I say that I accept their charges, my entire purpose of filing for Defamation gets defeated.
I am certain that this was a set-up between the concerned law clerk, perhaps with the connivance of the Judge.... though I am not making any allegations against the Judge, that would be useless, given that can be proved.
I am dismayed and disgusted at what has happened. In my application to the Judge, I have pointed out that "a clerical error in writing down my answer has occurred" and I have not made any allegation that a deliberate misrepresentation of my answer has been made, as the latter can never be proved.
On the other hand, a human error is always possible.
I am no longer in active practice and I have very limited financial resources. Besides, I am a widow and I do not have any political connections either. All this has been taken advantage of, by my politically strong Opponents.
Yet, I want to fight this injustice.
Can anyone on this Forum tell me if there is any legal remedy I can use, to get the wrongly-recorded phrase in my Deposition, corrected?
I'd like to thank anyone who guides me about this, in advance......
