( 1 ) THIS is an appeal by leave under Section 417 (3) Criminal Procedure Code by the complainant from the acquittal by the Magistrate of the respondent of a charge of defamation while deposing in a Civil Suit by stating "hemraj (present complainant and uncle (mama) of the plaintiff in that suit in which the respondent was defendant) was at Barnagar but has come away after becoming insolvent there. " the ground for acquittal by the Magistrate was that the witness might have thought that he was bound to answer the question and as such he was protected by the proviso to Section 132 of the Evidence Act. However, the trend of paragraph 6 of the Magistrate's judgment is that whenever a witness answers questions in the witness box the very fact of the Court allowing the question to be put would lead to the presumption that it is relevant, and the very context would indicate that the witness is being competed to answer; thus, in effect, he grants privilege--or absolute privilege--in regard to the statement of a witness in the witness-box. The case is therefore of interest in that it calls for the examination, firstly, of the question of a witness's absolute protection from pr