Madras High Court held in Para 14 that,
In this context reliance is placed by the petitioner on the decision in Ram Kumar Pori v. State of U.P. to contend that when the civil suit is pending, a parallel prosecution for defamation, could not be proceeded with. Such a proposition of law cannot be deduced from the above decision. In that case, the Supreme Court held that, when a civil court is seized of the question of disputed possession between rival parties, parallel proceedings by the Executive Magistrate u/s. 145, Cr.P.C. also to decide possession ought not to be proceeded with. This has no bearing on the case before us. The offending passage is per se defamatory and it is open to the respondent to choose to prosecute the petitioner, irrespective of the pendency or the result of the civil litigation. The Civil Court would confine its decision to the trespass, threat of injury and damage by the servants, agents and workmen of the various defendants and the entitlement of token damages by the respondent, while the criminal Court, the passage being per se defamatory, would proceed to find out whether any one of the 10 Exceptions to S. 499, I.P.C. would apply. The scope of the two proceedings is entirely different. They are not parallel.
Citations: [1992 CRIMES 2 465], [1992 CRI LJ 2427], [1992 MLJ 1 439], [1991 SCC ONLINE MAD 608]
Indiankanoon.org or Casemine link: https://indiankanoon.org/doc/1764544/ or https://www.casemine.com/judgement/in/56b49603607dba348f0161fb
The Index for Defamation Judgments is here.
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