The essential ingredients of the offence of defamation under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code are: (i) the making of an imputation against a person intending to harm his reputation; (ii) the imputation must be made with the knowledge or belief that it will harm the reputation of the person; and (iii) the imputation must be made in a public place or in the presence of other persons.

R. K. DAS, J.

( 1 ) THIS is a complainant's appeal against an order of the Magistrate, 1st Class, jajpur, acquitting the respondent of an offence under Section 500. Indian Penal code.

( 2 ) THE complainant is the Sarpanch of Barumdai Gram Punchayet and the accused is the President of Radhamohan Grain Gola Cooperative Society. P. W 1 Khageswar naik. a sub-assistant registrar of Co-operative Societies. Cuttack Circle, called for a meeting of the aforesaid Grain Gola Co-operative Society on 24-11-1963, and requested the B. D. (. ). (P. W. 4) to inform all members by beat of drum to be present at the said meeting. The B. D O. in bis turn asked the complainant to give notice of the meeting as directed by P. W 1. The complainant, P W. 3 accordingly gave notice of the meeting and he himself attended the meeting though he was not a member of the Radhamohan Grain Gola Co-operative Society.

( 3 ) IT is the prosecution case that the meeting commenced at about 2 p. m. on 2411-1963 in the Barundi Resf Shed in the presence of a large number of persons including P. W 1. P. W. 2 the Co-operative extension officer and P W. 1, the B D. O. . Korai and a constable The accused Dinabandhu Patri who was the President of the Grain Gola Co-operative Society, presided over the said meeting. In course of meeting, a question arose regarding the correct disbursement of the amount collected by the accused as some people complained that they had not received the full amount in spite of their executing necessary documents. At this the accused became furious and abused the complainant as "sain". Chora" Sarpanch at this abuse of the accused, disturbance prevailed in the meeting and it could not proceed Thereafter the complainant (P. W. 2) filed a regular complaint in the Court of the Sub Divisional Magistrate, Jaipur and the accused was duly summoned and charged under Section 500, I. P. C. the case against him being that he defamed the complainant Dhrubacharan Khandei of making certain imputations against him by spoken words such as 'sain' 'chora' and 'rakshyasa' intending thereby to harm his reputation

( 4 ) IN support of the prosecution case the complainant examined four witnesses including the three officers, P. W. s 12 and 4.

( 5 ) THE accused denied the occurrence. His case was that the complainant while giving notice of the meeting by beating of drums, made certain false allegations against him and in one previous meeting held on 5-11-1963 the B. D. O. abused him as nonsense and he had brought this matter to the notice of the higher authorities. He was not pulling on well with B D. 0. and it is on account of this grudge the B D. 0. with the connivance of the complainant has started this false case against him. He also examined himself as D. W. 1 and examined three others in support of his plea. He did not take any protection under any of the Exceptions under Section 499 I. P C

( 6 ) ON a perusal of the evidence, the learned Magistrate held as follows:

"no doubt all witnesses including the official witnesses speak that the accused abused and defamed P. W. 3 in the meeting. But it is to be seen the circumstances which led to such abuse by the accused. There was no such circumstance as to enrage the accused by P. W. 3 who was sitting calmly in the meeting without opening his mouth etc. "

The learned Magistrate rejected as unreliable the defence version that B. D. O. abused the accused as nonsense though he held that there was some ill-feeling between the B. D. O. and the accused He, however, held that the non-examination of the constable and some independent witnesses who were present at the meeting was fatal to the prosecution case. He accordingly acquitted the accused under Section 258 (1) Cr. P. C. It is against this order of acquittal, the complainant has preferred this appeal

( 7 ) IT cannot be disputed that in an appeal against the acquittal the High Court can review the entire evidence to examine the correctness of the conclusion arrived at by the