The accused in Calendar Case 7 of 1968 on the file of the District Magistrate, Trivandrum are the revision petitioners. They are the Chief Editor, Managing Editor, and Printer and Publisher, respectively of the MALAYALA MANORAMA, a Malayalam daily published from Kottayam. The complainant in the case is one Johnson, the proprietor of a betel nut shop just to the south of the Secretariat, Trivandrum. He sued the accused under S.500 of the Penal Code alleging that a news item published in the MALAYALA MANORAMA dated October 31, 1967 was calculated to injure his reputation and to lower him in the eyes of the public. The news item arose in the following circumstances:

2. A gold chain and a sum of Rs. 153/- belonging to Smt. Miranda Mary, a lady clerk of the Secretariat and kept by her in her office-table, were stolen on 28-10-1967 and in that connection a peon of the Secretariat by name Kuttan Nadar was arrested and on the information furnished by him the gold chain was recovered from a bucket in front of a tea shop into which waste materials were dumped, and the money (Rs.153) from the complainant's betel nut shop. In connection with this, the local reporter of the MALAYALA MANOR