The accused must exercise due care and caution before making defamatory statements, and the plea of good faith may be negated if the statements were made recklessly.

Kuppuswami Ayyar, J.

1. The two appellants, the editor and printer of the Sunday Observer, a weekly organ of the Justice party, have been convicted by the Chief Presidency Magistrate, Madras, for having made defamatory averments against the complainant Mr. C. Rajagopalachariar, an ex-Congress Prime Minister of this province, in the editorial published in the issue of that paper of 4th October 1942 and sentenced to pay fines of Rs. 1000 and Rs. 500 respectively. Their plea was that the averments in question were not defamatory, that even if they were, as it was expressly stated to be only a matter of opinion made in good faith and for the public good, they were protected by exceptions 3 and 9 to Section 499, Penal Code. The Chief Presidency Magistrate found on both the pleas against the appellants and convicted them. The only two points hence that arise for consideration in this appeal are (1) whether the statement in question is defamatory and (a) whether it was made in good faith and for the public good and consequently the appellants were not guilty of any offence. The offending passage occurred in the article published under the caption "Mr. Gandhi, the fountain source of evil," and runs thus:

It is clear that he "(Mr. Gandhi)" is not merely the "fountain source" but the engineering source of all acts of sabotage. It is all part of a plan. Mr. C. Rajagopalachariar and one or two other Congress leaders are, we strongly believe, aware of this plan, and are remaining out with a view perhaps to guiding it in an indirect manner. C. . must have arranged with Mr. Gandhi to fall out on the Pakistan issue and be expelled from the Congress on that pretext, so that some leaders may stand out and be available for work outside.

The long and short of it all is that Mr. Gandhi organised this campaign of violence - his speeches and "C.R.s" speeches as to a short and swift struggle on big scale leave no doubt whatever - and wants that campaign to go on.

Before considering how far these statements can be said to be defamatory, we have to bear in mind certain facts proved by the evidence in the case and which are not disputed. Mr. C. Rajagopalachariar, a prominent leading member of the Congress was a member of the All India Congress Committee, as also of the Working Committee for a number of years except during certain short periods. He and his fellow ministers who were all of the Congress party, resigned in 1939 on the war issue. In April 1942 he introduced a resolution at a meeting of the Parliamentary Legislative Party at Madras recommending that the demand of the Muslim League for Pakistan should be conceded. Prior to that the Indian National Congress was against the granting of such a demand. As a matter of fact Mr. Rajagopalachariar himself in some of his speeches made earlier opposed the demand of the Muslims for dividing the country in the manner in which the Pakistan scheme would (vide enclosures 8, 9 and 10 attached to accused ls statement dated 20th April 1943.) The resolution of Mr. C. Rajagopalachariar in April 1942 with respect to the demand of Pakistan by the Muslims was passed in the meeting of the Madras Parliamentary Legislative Party but the All India Congress organisation was against it and a similar resolution there was thrown out. When he started propaganda in favour of Pakistan, objection was taken to the same on the ground that he could not remain in the Congress and do propaganda against the decision of the All India Congress Committee, with the result that Mr. Rajagopalachariar resigned even his primary membership in the Congress. The goal of the All India Congress was the attainment of freedom by India free from any kind of dependency on Britain. There have been various resolutions passed by the Congress bodies at various times with regard to the method to be adopted for the attainment of that goal. On 14th July 1942 the Working Committee of the All India Congress Committee passed a resolution recommending the s