Being aggrieved of the ruthless comments made upon Birbal by Akbar (His Majesty) in front of the entire Darbar, Birbal has decided to file a Defamation Complaint before the Court of Law. (If you feel clueless, read the first paragraph of - PREVIEW OF DEFAMATION COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE ) Also, Birbal is clueless about the legal process, so he approached Me ( Note: this anecdote is fictional, if you have not realized till now). I had to tell him the following information to make him aware about “Defamation Case Procedures in Indian Courts” in exchange of some legal-fee of course: SECTION 499: Defamation is a Criminal offence under Section 499 of Indian Penal Code . This legal provision contains the legal definition of ‘Defamation’, which has to be followed by Courts and the judicial fraternity in order to convict or acquit an Accused person. Short-Gyan: Did you know that making defamatory comments against a dead individual is also a criminal defamation offence! PUNISHME...
An F.I.R. filed against you generally mean that the Police authority now has all the legal powers to arrest you. But, like in every other case, there are exceptions to that as well, and also like every other case, each of such exception has a cost of its own which you may have to bear. And just like every other prior article, I will only inform you about the legal procedure involved to deal with this anxious situation of yours. TECHNICAL BACKGROUND – F.I.R: An F.I.R. can only be registered against you when the allegations are pointing towards a ‘ Cognizable Offence ’. For the purpose of everyone’s technical knowledge, a cognizable offence is an offence in which the police official does not require a warrant to arrest the accused person. In simple words, Police can arrest you as soon as the FIR is lodged against you (Refer to Schedule – 1 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 [hereinafter “ CrPC ” ] for an exhaustive list of cognizable/non-cognizable offences mentioned under the Ind...