This is transcript of video lectures from the series of [[15 Video Lectures on Indian Constitution]] **Navigate to other lectures in this series:** [[Introduction to Indian Constitution]] | [[Constituent Assembly Debates]] | [[Preamble of Indian Constitution]] | [[Citizenship in India]] | [[Right to Equality]] | [[Reservation Policies and Indian Constitution]] | [[Freedom of Speech & Expression]] | [[Right to Life and Personal Liberty]] | [[Freedom of Religion]] | [[Rights of Minorities]] | [[Directive Principles]] | [[Fundamental Rights, Directive Principles & Fundamental Duties’ Relationship]] | [[Union Executive Powers & Position of President & Prime Minister]] | [[Indian Judiciary]] | [[Constitutional Amendments & the Basic Structure Theory]] # Chapter 7 - Lecture 7 By Prof. (Dr.) Faizan Mustafa Namaskar, hello welcome to online course on Indian Constitution sponsored by Ministry of Law and Justice Government of India and offered by Nal sir University of Law. Today we are going to talk about freedom of speech and expression which is one of the most important rights in any democracy. Now why article 19 is called Charter of Liberty. Article 19 is called Charter of Liberty as it guarantees not one right but number of rights. We in previous lectures discussed right to equality. So article 14 was talking about equality and then 15 was also talking about another facet of equality. 16 was talking about another facet of equality. You have similarly article 21 which talks of personal liberty and here we are going to talk about article 19 which guarantees not one or two but as many as six rights. Now what are these rights? Freedom of speech and expression right to assemble peacefully and without arms, right to form associations or unions which after the 97th amendment now includes cooperative societies. Right to move freely throughout the territory of India, right to reside and settle in any part of territory of India, right to practice any profession or to carry on any occupation trade or business. Now fundamental rights are natural and basic rights. These rights are inherent in the status of citizens. Therefore these rights are available only to citizens. We have discussed in the previous lecture freedom of religion is available even to foreigners. Right to equality is available even to a company and a foreigner. Here we are talking of rights of only people who are Indian citizens and therefore these rights are available only to natural persons. While right to equality can be claimed even by a corporate or a company or a juristic person, article 19 rights are available only to natural persons and therefore companies and juristic persons cannot claim article 19 rights. Now we should also understand that no right can be absolute or uncontrolled. Many people in our country talk only of rights. They think rights are absolute. Rights can be curtailed. At times must be curtailed and must be restricted. Now there is a difference between American constitution and Indian constitution. In United States constitution what restrictions can be imposed on fundamental rights are not mentioned in the constitution. Judiciary has been given the right to evolve those restrictions. We did not want this kind of confusion in our constitution and therefore in the constitution itself we have stated the restrictions. Therefore article 19 clauses two to six tell us about the restrictions which can be imposed on these six fundamental rights guaranteed by article 19. Now what kind of restrictions can be imposed? Each and every restriction is not justified. Only reasonable restrictions can be imposed. From where this word reasonable has come it was not there in the original constitution. It was inserted in 1951 by the first constitutional amendment before restriction, before word restriction in clause two of article 90. This word reasonable in a way limits the power of the state. Now state can impose only reasonable restrictions which restriction is reasonable if it satisfies the requirement of proportionality. Who has the burden to prove whether the restriction is reasonable and proportional state? Who determines the reasonableness of the restriction? This is the job of the courts. Now which fundamental right has been deleted from article 19? Six rights I just mentioned but there was a seventh right also. Article 19 clause F had guaranteed right to acquire, hold and dispose of property. By the 44th amendment in 1978 this fundamental right was deleted. Does that mean that anyone can not take away your property because right to property is not a fundamental right? The answer is no. No one can still interfere with your right to property. Right to property may not be a fundamental right but it continues to be a legal right. What is the difference? If it is a fundamental right then no law can be passed which violates a fundamental right due to article 30 which we had discussed before. So today you are entitled to acquire, entitled to have your property because you have a legal right to your property. Why freedom of speech is important? We should now discuss freedom of speech. Democracy is government by choice. If you are living in a monarchy one king is dead, another king or the prince becomes the king. The principle is king is dead, long live kingship. In a democracy we choose our leaders, we choose our rulers. So people are called upon to make several choices in a democracy. How can you make a choice if you do not know what are the various alternatives available to you? A choice is always made out of alternatives. Freedom of speech and expression pales the way for making you understand various choices. So all kinds of leaders will come and speak and then you will pick up and vote one particular leader. So if freedom of speech and expression has a purpose what is that purpose? That it helps people in making the right choice at the hastings on the voting day to make a right choice. Then freedom of speech and expression is not a license for unnecessary talk-tiveness. You are not supposed to talk nonsense under freedom of speech and expression. You have to say only such things which help people make the right choice. What are the four values which freedom of speech as a right serve? One freedom of speech assures individual self-fulfillment. If an individual is not allowed to express his emotions, his opinions, his frustrations, his happiness, he will not feel self-fulfilled. The versatile development of an individual's personality is impossible if he does not have right to express himself. Freedom of speech and expression helps us in attaining the truth. Number of people are speaking. Who is telling us the truth? If all are allowed to speak, people can make a judgment. Who is telling the truth? So if we want to attain the truth, let everyone exercise his freedom of speech and expression. Democracy is not confined just to exercising your ballot once in five years. People are sovereign. People are the ultimate masters. Therefore, people should continue to participate in the social, political and economic decision making of the government. How do people participate by speaking, by writing, by making cartoon? Therefore, freedom of speech and expression ensures people's participation in the governance of the country. And freedom of speech and expression also helps us in maintaining the balance between stability and change in the society. Any change in the society has to come through freedom of speech and expression, through lawful means, change is good, but stability is equally good. Therefore, if we want to have a balance between change and stability, we must have freedom of speech and expression. How is free speech important for democracy? John Stuart Mill, British philosopher, British writer, great writer, has said, if all mankind minus one were of one opinion and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, that one person, then he, if he had power, would be justified in silencing mankind. So, if the entire humanity has one view and there is another person who has a contrary view, this contrary view must be expressed. People are to make choice, so every relevant fact, every opinion must be expressed. In democracy, governments work with the consent of the people. How is the consent of the people expressed through freedom of speech and expression? And therefore, the govern must exercise their right to expression of consent. Michael Joel, who is a leading American writer, has said, when men govern themselves, it is they and no one else who must pass judgment upon unwisdom and unfairness and danger. And that means that unwise ideas must have a hearing as well as wise ones. Our government repeatedly says that everyone has a right to express his views, because all views are important, whether those views are good or those views are bad, people will decide. So, conflicting views may be expressed, must be expressed, not because they are valid, but because they are relevant. To be afraid of ideas is to be unfit for self-government. Therefore, when someone is expressing views, they can express whatever views they want to express, but within the limitations of freedom of speech and expression. No one has a right to abuse or misuse freedom of speech and expression. And therefore, restrictions on freedom of speech and expression are equally important. What does freedom of speech contain? Freedom of speech means the right to express one's convictions and opinions by word of mouth, writing, printing, picture or any other mode, offline as well as online. Whether you are on WhatsApp or Twitter or Instagram, wherever you want to express yourself, you can express. Freedom of speech includes freedom of circulation. You can reach out to as big an audience as you want. In a leading case of Ramesh Thaapur, versus the state of Madras, 1950, judgment of Supreme Court, banning entry of newspaper crossroads, which was published from Bombay, in Madras was held as invalid. So, this paper crossroad, it is allowed every year, but not allowed in Madras, not Chennai. The court said freedom of speech includes right to circulation. Indirect ban of circulation, such as number of pages and size of paper was also held in valid in Sakal papers versus Union of India. We must also remember one very important fact, while freedom of press is specifically mentioned in the American constitution. There will be a lot of rights. Article 19 does not mention freedom of press. Therefore, when a newspaper is published, its correspondents, its editors, its publishers are exercising their individual right of free speech. Commercial advertisements, yellow pages, comprising paid advertisements, are also protected within freedom of speech and expression. This is a leading case of Tata Press Limited Mahanagar Telephone Niga. If you are a performing artist, whether you perform on the streets or in theatre, that expression, dramatic expression is protected and included with freedom of speech. How can you speak if you do not have the information? And therefore, freedom of speech includes right to information. We now have a right to information act. So, from any public authority, you can seek information. If that information is denied, you can file an appeal before the first appellate authority in that organization. Subsequently, you can go in appeal either to state information commission or to the central information commission. Right to fly national flag is also included within freedom of speech and expression. But in America, the courts have held that even burning of the flag is part of freedom of speech. In India, we do not follow it. We have a national honor sect. Any disrespect to national flag is a punishable offense. Let us now come to the restrictions because you cannot understand a right without restrictions. I told you in the beginning, no right is absolute. I told you reasonable restrictions can be imposed on freedom of speech and expression. But what are those restrictions? Article 19, clause 2 tells us reasonable restrictions in the interest of or in relation to following can be imposed to curtail your freedom of speech and expression. Sovereignty and integrity of India. This restriction was not there in the original constitution and was inserted by the 16th constitutional amendment in 1963. So you cannot say anything against the sovereignty of the country or against the integrity of the country. Sovereignty and integrity of the country should not be violated through freedom of speech and expression. And therefore any speech which in any way comes in way of our sovereignty and integrity it is to be curtailed. We exist because of our country. So security of our country, security of a state is a very important restriction. Freedom of speech does not entitle anybody to compromise or say anything which in any way impinges on the security of our state. Friendly relations with foreign states. This restriction was also not there in the original constitution and was inserted by the first amendment in 1951. So if we have good relations with America, don't write things which can damage our friendly relations with America. Public order. This restriction was also inserted by the first constitutional amendment in 1951. Nobody has a right to speak or write anything which in any way adversely affect the public order, create disorder in the society or chaos in the society. A state will be well within its right to curtail your freedom of speech and expression if it feels that there is a danger to public order. Then, disence your morality. Don't talk indiscent things. Already in our Indian penal code, obscenity is a crime from sections 292 to 296. Contempt of code. You have freedom of speech and expression but don't attribute motives to judges. Of course, the power of the contempt of code is sparingly exercised. But if you say anything against the code or judges, then your freedom of speech and expression is to be curtailed. We have a separate act, contempt of codes act 1971 which punishes both civil contempt as well as criminal contempt. Now how these restrictions are to be imposed? Not by a government order. Not by an executive order. Freedom of speech is important. Fundamental rights are important. Therefore, if these rights are to be curtailed, they should be curtailed by the laws enacted by the parliament or the SMEs. This was the judgment in express newspaper limited versus union of India. Freedom of speech also does not give you a right to indulge in hate speech. Hate speech is also a kind of a crime under section 153A and word 153B of Indian penal code. Don't make any imputation against anybody's religion or don't doubt anybody's patriotism. Before 2015, online and offline speech were treated on different pedestals under law. Section 66A of Information Technology Act 2000. It made a provision for punishing anyone who posted material that was grossly offensive, inconvenient, injurious, menacing, incorrect or insulting. Supreme Court in Shreya's single case, Easter Downs Section 66A. Only government agencies or judiciary now can get any content removed from the net. So today, what did we learn? We learned about importance of freedom of speech and expression. We learned about the four values which freedom of speech and expression serves. We talked about what freedom of speech and expression contains and what restrictions can be imposed on freedom of speech and expression. In the next lecture, we shall talk about right to life and personal liberty. Thank you very much. ---  *Disclaimer: I am not asserting any claim over this content. The content is entirely from the Ministry of Law & Justice and NALSAR University of Law's joint online course on the Indian Constitution. My effort has been to make the transcript available for people like myself who prefer to read or quote it rather than to listen. This is part of my public self-archiving project. For more details, see [notes.daktre.com](https://notes.daktre.com) or [daktre.com](https://daktre.com).* Last updated: 2026-02-21 22:26