1. Rathi, daughter of M. C. Verghese was married to T. J. Ponnan On July 18,1964, July 25,1964 and July 30,1964, Ponnan wrote from Bombay letters to Rathi who was then residing with her parents at Trivandrum which it is claimed contained defamatory imputations concerning Verghese. Verghese then filed a complaint in the Court of the District Magistrate, Trivandrum against Ponnan charging him with offence of defamation. Ponnan submitted an application raising two preliminary contentions: (1) that the letters which formed the sole basis of the complaint were inadmissible in evidence as they were barred by law or expressly prohibited by law from disclosure; and (2) that uttering of a libel by a husband to his wife was not "publication" under the law of India and hence cannot support a charge for defamation, and prayed for an order of discharge, and applied that he may be discharged.

2. The District Magistrate held that a communication by a husband to his wife or by a wife to her husband of a matter defamatory of another person does not amount in law to publication, since the husband and wife are one in the eye of the law. In so holding, he relied upon the judgment in Wennhak