The main legal point established in the judgment is that in cases of alleged slander or defamation based on caste questions, the court must consider whether the actions imputed to the plaintiff render them liable to be outcasted or cause them to lose their caste status, and whether there is evidence of specific damages suffered as a result of the alleged slander.

Sadasiva Aiyar, J.

1. I need not repeat the facts which have been set out fully in the judgment just now pronounced by my learned brother. So far as the case law is concerned. I do not wish to go further back than what has been laid down in Coopoosami Chetti v. Doraisami Chetti (1909) I.L.R.33 M. 67 s.c. 19 M.L.J. 174 and in Coopoosami Chetti v. Duraisami Chetti (1912) M.W.N. 1220. On these caste questions, the law in my humble opinion, ought to be made progressive. Social customs among Hindus have begun to change with quite appreciable rapidity and conservative observations therefore which may be found in cases decided about 30 years ago (as in The Queen v. Sankara. (1888) I.LR. 6 M. 381 and Venkatachalapathi v. Subbaroyan (1887) I.L.R. 13 M. 293), even though those observations were made by very learned and eminent Judges ought not to be pushed now a days too far.

2. Even the highest Judicial minds like those of Lord Eldon, Lord Mansfield or Lord St. Leonards are affected to some extent by the spirit of conservatism, or of liberalism as the case may be and the recognition of that fact by even lesser minds implies no disrespect to those great jurists. I do not at all mean to question the soundness of the actual decisions in The Queen v. Sankara (1883) I.L.R. 6 M. 381 and Venkatachala Pathi v. Subbaroyan (1890) I.L.R. 13 M. 293 but only to submit that all the incidental observations therein need not be strictly adhered to without the necessary qualifications at the present day.

3. Mr. Justice Chandavarkar said in Natu v. Keshawji (1902) I.L.R. 26 B. 174 Roughly speaking, a suit raising a caste question must fall within one of three Chases: firstly : it may be a suit brought by a member of a caste complaining of his expulsion from it and asking for a declaration that the expulsion is illegal, and that he is still a member of the caste and as such entitled to its social privileges: secondly, a member of a caste expelled from it may sue for a declaration that the excommunication is illegal, and that he is entitled to certain rights of property or office as a member of the caste: or, thirdly, it may be a suit brought by such member for damages on account of toss of caste or character : The decided cases, of which there is a large number, show that a suit involving a caste question must fall under one or other of these heads.

4. The present suit belongs to the third class. As regards this third class, Mr. Justice Chandavarkar says " Turning now to the third class, suits claiming relief for loss of caste and character are in the nature of suits for libel and fall within the law applicable to the latter. The Bombay Regulation expressly provides for them. As held by West J. in Pragji Kalam v. Govind Gopal (1887) I.L.R. 11 B 534 " the Civil Courts may discuss and deal with a caste question where the membership and the character of a member have been unjustly injured".

5. I do not know whether it is not a matter for some regret that the legislature should have given so wide a definition of Defamation in the Penal Code (See Section 499, Explanation 4) as to include caste questions within it where the questions do not involve imputations as to moral character. I have heard of a thieving caste in which a man born in that caste loses "character in respect of his caste" if he is taunted with not having had a theft to his credit before he attains the adult age. If the words "character of that person in respect of his caste " in Section 499, Explanation 4 of the Indian Penal Code be too liberally interpreted, it would lead to a person taunted as above, bringing a suit for launching a criminal case in respect of such an imputation.

6. In many cases, no doubt, a caste offence is committed by an act which implies a defect in the moral or intellectual character of the person as the imputation of such an act is "defamation irrespective of the fact that it is also a caste offence. The giving up of the rules of caste by birth now-a-days does not, h