Cases

Sharma v Singh & Associated Newspapers Ltd

Held

(1) The article was capable of bearing the Ds’ meaning relating to conduct not actionable as harassment.

(2) Accordingly the Ds did not have to plead particulars which disclosed a criminal offence or civil tort under the Act, which did not in any event define harassment.

(3) Since D was seeking to prove that C was guilty of sexual harassment, it was not legitimate for D to seek in parallel to prove that C had been investigated by Air India and by the police, or to prove the response of the investigators to the allegations of harassment - such matters were irrelevant.

(4) The proposed pleading on the internal report breached the repetition rule, and there was no reasonable basis for drawing an inference that C had hampered the progress of an Air India investigation into his conduct.

Also