Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Alaska

Re: Legal implications of contents of a book

Since I have not seen the text of your proposed book and do not know all the facts, my answer must necessarily be general.

Is the country India? If so, the answer is as follows:

Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution states that all citizens of India shall have the right of freedom of speech and expression. This is a fundamental right and is subject to reasonable restriction, that is, laws can be made restricting the exercise of the right in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence.THERE IS NO CENSORSHIP OF THE WRITTEN WORD. Subject to these laws, you can write anything.

However, most bureaucrats and many persons in authority do not see it that way. They will not take criticism kindly. You may be harassed by reprimands, disciplinary inquiries on flimsy grounds, and so forth. There may be no substance in the charges against you, but you will have to defend yourself and this will mean spending a lot of time and possibly money also.

Further,please check your service conditions. There may be a clause preventing you from doing anything that shows up the institution in a bad light. If there is, you can always still write the book and when this clause is invoked, challenge it on the ground that it violates your fundamental right under Article 19 (1)(a). If the institution is privately run, you may not even be able to do that, because fundamental rights can be invoked only against the "State or other authority".

There is one more possible difficulty. Even if you give the characters in your book fictitious names, but they can be identified with people in the book, you may be sued for defamation. For example, the head of a particular department is Mr. 'X'. In your book you give him the name Mr. 'Y' and depict him as a swindler, lecher, or something equally derogatory. Nevertheless, if some of those reading the book know Mr.'X' and can identify Mr.'Y'as Mr. 'X', and believe that he has done the things mentioned in the book, he can both sue you in a civil court for publishing a libel as well as prosecute you in a criminal court for defamation.

I would therefore advise you that before the book is published, you should show the manuscript to a lawyer and apprise him of all the facts and seek his opinion.