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