Lawfare, Defamation – Others

In a significant judgment, a city civil court here has directed a trade union and its three office-bearers to jointly pay damages of ₹1 lakh to the State Bank of India (SBI) for having defamed the institution by circulating handbills and pasting posters across the city alleging “loot of public funds” deposited in the bank.

Decreeing a suit preferred by the bank in 2014, judge S. Isvarane also granted a permanent injunction restraining SBI Ambedkar Trade Union from issuing defamatory handbills, notices and pamphlets; displaying placards and pasting posters against the bank. He directed the union to pay cost of the suit to the institution. “It is not possible to quantify the damages for defamation with arithmetical precision. The quantum of business lost or number of customers lost is incapable of calculation. But, the impact of the defamatory acts of the defendants on the reputation and business of the plaintiff bank cannot be underestimated,” the judge said.

Stating that the court could order either actual, assumed or punitive damages in a suit for defamation, Mr. Isvarane said: “In this case, the very purpose of ordering compensation on the defendants is only as a punishment to deter the defendants and persons having like mind to desist from doing scurrilous and defamatory acts.”

The judge agreed with the bank that insider dealings and corporate espionage had become the order of the day since private and public sector banks vie with each other to promote their business. In such circumstances, employees of a bank should not indulge in activities that tarnish the image of their own employer in the business world, he said.