Section 30, The Public Order Act, 1965

No person shall be criminally liable for the publication of a defamatory matter in the following cases—a) where the defamatory matter consists of an extract from, or an abstract of, a petition to, or a Gazette or document published by or under the authority of, the Governor-General or a Minister and the publication is made without express malice to the person defamed; or b) where the defamatory matter constitutes, in whole or in part a fair report, for the information of the public, of any proceeding of any Court, whether preliminary or final; or of any public proceeding of any body constituted or authorised to hold such proceeding, by any Act or Order or of any public meeting so far as the public is concerned in the matter published if, in every case the publication is made without express malice to the person defamed; or c) where the publication is for the information of the public at the request of any Minister or public officer, or where the defamatory matter is any notice or report issued by a department of Government or public officer, for the information of the public, and where in every such case the publication is made without express malice to the person defamed; or d) where the defamatory matter consists of fair comment wither on any matter the publication of which or on nay report which, is referred to in sections 26 to 29 or in this section; or e) where the defamatory matter consists of fair comment upon the public conduct of any person in public affairs, or upon the public conduct of any person employed in the public service in the discharge of his public duties, or upon the character of any such persons so as it appears by such conduct; or f) where the defamatory matter consists of fair comment on any published book or other literary production, or any composition or work of art, or performance publicly exhibited, or any subject; or of the character of the author of such book, production, composition, work of art, or the person exhibiting such performance, so far as their characters may appear therefrom respectively; or g) where the publication is in good faith for the purpose of seeking remedy or redress for any private or public wrong or grievance from a person who has or is reasonably believed by the person publishing to have, the right to remedy or redress such wrong or grievance; or h) where the publication is made in good faith by a person having any lawful authority over another, and is made by him in the course of a censure passed by him on the conduct of that other, in matters to which such lawful authority relates; or i) where the publication is made on the invitation of the person defamed; or j) where the publication is made in order to answer or refute some other defamatory matter published by the person defamed, concerning the person making the publication; or k) where the defamatory matter constitutes an answer to inquiries made of the person publishing it, relating to some subject as to which the person by whom or on whose behalf the inquiry is made, has, or on reasonable grounds is believed by the person publishing to have, an interest in knowing the truth, and if the publication is made in good faith for the purpose of giving information in respect of that matter to that person; or l) where the defamatory matter constitutes information given to the person to whom the defamatory matter is published with respect, to some subject as to which he h as, or is on reasonable grounds believed to have, such an interest in knowing the truth, as to make the conduct of the person giving the information reasonable in the circumstances: Provided that as regards paragraphs (h), (i), (j) and (k), the person making the publication honestly believes the matter published is relevant to the matter the existence of which may excuse the publication of defamatory matter, and the manner and extent of the publication do not exceed what is reasonably sufficient for the occasion; and as regards paragraph (l) that the defamatory matter is relevant to the subject therein mentioned; and that it is either true or is made without malice to the person defamed and in the honest believe, on reasonable grounds, that it is true.