Prosecution U/S 500 of IPC is not tenable against artificial or juristic person like Chief Education Officer
If we analyse the definition of defamation in Section 499 I.P.C., it will be crystal clear that it is an offence involving personal malicious intent, which is evident from the fact that one of the essential ingredients is either intention to harm or knowledge or reasons to believe that such imputation will harm the reputation of the other. Therefore, an artificial/juristic person cannot be prosecuted for an offence under Section 500 I.P.C., for such an artificial/juristic person cannot be attributed with any malicious interntion because malicious intention can be attributed only to a living person. In the instant case, the Chief Educational Officer/the first accused is an artificial/juristic person and therefore, as against him, the prosecution for offence under Section 500 I.P.C., cannot be maintained.
Madras High Court
Chief Education Officer vs Mr.K.S.Palanichamy on 24 February, 2012
