( 1 ) THE complainant in a case under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code against the present respondent and one Giani Bichittar Singh filed this appeal with the special leave of the Court under Section 417 (3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure against the acquittal of the respondent in that case The respondent was the owner of a journal in Gurmukhi language named Nabi Probhat while the co-accused in the case Giani Bichittar Singh was the editor, printer and publishei thereof. In two issues of that journal dated October 1 and October 6 1964 respectively the journal published two editorials containing defamatory statements about the complainant which formed the basis of the charge framed against both the accused persons.

( 2 ) THE defence of the present respondent, as it-appears from his statement under Section 342 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, was that the editorial was written by the editor and that he had no guilt in the matter. He alleged that he had been impleaded in the case as the result of rivalry between two factions and that he has been the victim of that rivalry over control of the journal. The defence of the co-accused was a plea of justificati