Right To Freedom Of Speech And Expression In India (An Old And Rare Book)

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An attempt has been made in this work to study the right to freedom of speech and expression as a fundamental right, guaranteed by Art. 19 (1) (a) and Art. (19) (2) of the Constitution of India. The Constitution of India has guaranteed freedom of speech and expression to every citizen. This freedom could be curtailed by the Legislature only if the restrictions imposed were reasonable and they were made in the interests of any of the several specified grounds for social control.

It is also gratifying to note that even in the absence of a separate guarantee of the freedom of the press in the Constitution of India, the Supreme Court of India has not only asserted it as included in the freedom of speech and expression as guaranteed by Art. 19 (1) (a) but has also struck down laws imposing direct or indirect restrictions upon the freedom of the press, which cannot be justified as reasonable. This freedom of the press has been studied in depth by appropriate analysis of legislative enactments and judicial pronouncements.

The legislative privileges also expressly include freedom of speech in Parliament (or State Legislature as the case may be) and this freedom is subject to the provisions of the Constitution and to the rules and orders regarding the procedure in Parliament (or the State Legislature). The constitutional position of freedom of speech with reference to legislative privileges has been comprehensively studied in this work.

This freedom also has an aspect which may affect the proper functioning of the judicial system. Hence an inquiry has been made into the law relating to the contempt of Courts and freedom of speech has been studied in the context of exercising this freedom without committing the contempt of court.

The constitutional and legal provisions relating to freedom of speech and expression and this freedom as reflected in the context of freedom of the press, legislative privileges and contempt of Courts have been studied analytically and comparatively with reference to other constitutional systems.

This inquiry into the most significant citadel of democracy has proved to be an enlightening and rewarding study, and has considerably strengthened the conviction of the author that a written Constitution essentially implies a limited government and that in each case an attempt should be made to adjust the conflicting interests of the individual and the society as no real conflict between them could have been intended in a democratic system.

**Contents and Sample Pages**