WAHID ULLAH AHRARI Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application for the revision of an order of the Sessions Judge of Aligarh upholding the order of conviction and sentence passed by a First Class Magistrate on the applicant under Section 500, Indian Penal Code. The facts on which the conviction has been based are given fully in the order of the Magistrate and the essentials have been repeated in that of the Sessions Judge. It is sufficient to state here that the applicant, was admittedly responsible for two articles which were published in a paper called the University Punch, Aligarh, containing the most scandalous accusations against the girls of the Girls Intermediate College of Aligarh. The articles are given in full both in English and Urdu in the order of the Magistrate. The first of them asserts that the girls of the college frequented broad Marris Road, green meadows and canal banks which are frequented by pleasure seeking youths every morning and evening for their solace and enjoyment, and also that Meena Bazar Exhibition was held within the precincts of the college, that university students and professors, Muslim and non-Muslim gentry of the town and gay officers visited the place after obtaining tickets for shopping with these educated Muslim harlots of the Meena Bazar. I should mention that the translation of the word "shahidan" into "harlots" has been objected to by learned Counsel for the applicant, and it is suggested that the word means no more than "beauties" unless it is connected with the word "bazar." This however is a very technical objection, because the "implication conveyed by the word in its context is unmistakable. The second article refers to a particular case, namely that of a young girl who is said to have been found unconscious near the Girls Intermediate Collage, and it was added that it was widely said that she was the victim of repeated brutal assaults. The implication of the article undoubtedly is that owing to the conditions within the college such an incident was quite likely to take place in its neighbourhood.

(2.) Both the Courts have agreed that the articles are defamatory. In the lower appellate Court a plea was taken that the person aimed at in the article was not the girls in the college, but the Honorary Secretary, and that he was not the complainant, so that the prosecution ought to fail. This was a purely technical argument and has not been pressed in this Court. The argument that has been pressed in appeal is, firstly, that the articles which contain the defamatory matter do not refer to the "boarder girls" but simply to the girls of the college. It is said that there are over 150 girls in the college of whom 75 are boarders, and of the 67 who joined in making the complaint in the present case one was a minor and her guardian subsequently withdrew from the prosecution. The argument is that if the articles are defamatory, they apply equally to any one of the girls in the college, and that no individual girl is defamed, thereby, nor is the college collectively defamed. The case of Government Advocate Bihar and Orissa V/s. Gopabadhu Das 1922 Pat. 101, has been relied on by Mr. Kumuda Prasad, in which it has been remarked, by a Bench of the Patna High Court that: An imputation against an association or collection of persons jointly may amount to defamation within the meaning of Section 499 I.P.C., but it must be an imputation capable of being: brought home to a particular individual or collection of individuals as such, and again the rule is that if the words used contain no reflection on a particular individual or individuals, but may equally well apply to others, although belonging to the same class, an action will not lie.

(3.) Explanation No. 2 of Section 499, Indian Penal Code shows that: It may amount to defamation to make an imputation concerning a company or association.