S.Malik

1. HEARD learned counsel for parties.

2. THE relevant facts are that a complaint was filed before the Magistrate concerned by opposite party no. 2 D.K. Prasad under section 500 of the Indian Penal Code alleging that the applicant on 17-12-78 went out of his office in the Cantonment Board, Bareilly, and in the presence of certain persons who had collected, defamed the sister-in-law of the complainant, namely, Smt. Lila Kant, an Advocate practising at Bareilly and Vice President of the Cantonment Board, saying that she is a lear, is a third-class woman etc. According to the complaint, he lives jointly with his brother and sister-in-law.. Smt. Lila Kant, it is said, is a respectable woman of status and due to the words uttered by the applicant, the complainant himself being the brother-in-law of tine lady felt defamed and lowered in the eyes of the public.

The learned Magistrate after recording evidence under section 200 and under section 202 CrPC summoned the accused and thereafter on the objections raised by the applicant pleading the bar of sections 197 (1) and 199 CrPC dismissed the complaint. The learned Magistrate held that the applicant being a Government servant