ORAL ORDER

The plaintiffs in O.S.No.93/2020 on the file of the I Additional Senior Civil Judge and CJM, Mangaluru, Dakshina Kannada, (henceforth referred to as 'Trial Court' for short) are before this Court challenging the correctness of an order dated 24.08.2023 by which, an application filed by them under Order XIV Rule 5 read with Section 151 of Civil Procedure Code was rejected.

2. (i) The suit in O.S.No.93/2020 was filed for damages due to a defamatory article circulated by the defendants on YouTube. The plaintiffs claimed that the assertions made in the circulation were false and far from truth and intended to defame them. The plaintiffs therefore claimed compensation of Rs.1,00,00,000/- from the defendants for damaging their reputation.

(ii) The suit was contested by the defendants who inter alia contended that the defendant No.1 was a reporter of 'ºÁAiÀiï ¨ÉAUÀ¼ÀÆgÀÄ' a Kannada weekly news paper and a member of the Karnataka State Working Press Reporters Association. He was also the editor of '¤ªÀÄä C©üªÀÄvÀ' a Kannada weekly news paper. He claimed that whatever that was posted on YouTube, if read as a whole, did not lower the reputation of the plaintiffs in the estimation o