Judgement

Appeal, by special leave, from a conviction and-sentence by the Chief Court of Lower Burma (October 19, 1912) on a prosecution for defamation under s. 499 of the Indian Penal Code.

The appellant, who was the editor and one of the pro prietors of a newspaper called the Burma Critic, published at Rangoon, was charged with having defamed Mr. G. P. Andrew, a member of the Indian Civil Service, the Deputy Commissioner and District Magistrate at Mergui, by the publication in that paper on April 28, 1912, of two articles entitled "A Mockery of British Justice."

Mr. Andrew as District Magistrate at Mergui had on August 21, 22, and 28, 1911, held an inquiry in a case in which one Captain McCormick, a resident in the Mergui District, was charged under ss. 868 and 876 of the Indian Penal Code with the offences of the abduction and rape of a Malay girl. Mr. Andrew held that there had been no abduction and that the charge of rape was false, and he directed that the accused should be discharged.

The charges made against Mr. Andrew in the articles in question were shortly to the effect that Mr. Andrew was an intimate friend of Captain McCormick and had conspired with Mr. Finnie, the Dis