New Delhi: The Supreme Court will commence hearing pleas pertaining to the question of whether public functionaries – such as ministers, MLAs, MPs, among others – should have far greater restrictions than those imposed by Article 19 (2) of the constitution on November 15.
The matter came up before a five-judge constitutional bench of Justices S. Abdul Nazeer, B.R. Gavai, A.S. Bopanna, V. Ramasubramanian and B.V. Nagarathna on Wednesday, September 28. The bench said it cannot allow the framing of general guidelines in “thin air” to restrict public functionaries from their freedom of speech and expression while agreeing to hear the matter at length on November 15.
“Can we lay down some central guidelines without examining the factual background? We cannot decide this question in thin air. We need to decide this on a case-to-case basis,” Justice Nazeer said, speaking for the bench, according to The Hindu.
The matter goes back to a 2016 petition filed by the family members of a woman, who was raped in Bulandshahr, against former Uttar Pradesh minister and Samajwadi Party leader, Azam Khan. They took objection to Khan describing the rape as a “political conspiracy and nothing else”.
Subsequently, Khan unconditionally apologised before the apex court in December 2016. However, the top court had then said that it will examine if restrictions can be imposed on the free speech of politicians in sensitive matters and whether a minister can claim the right to ‘freedom of speech and expression’ to speak contrary to the Union government’s statute and policy.
On Wednesday, advocate Kaleeswaram Raj, appearing for petitioner Joseph Shine from Kerala in a similar plea, did agree that such judicially-imposed restriction over and above Article 19(2) may not be impermissible. “But, when there are horizontal and repeated violations by a public functionary what can be done?” he asked the bench, according to The Hindu.
He further went on to recommend “self-regulation” guidelines for public functionaries like in some foreign countries given that statements by public functionaries have a far greater impact than that of an ordinary person.
“India could borrow that model and set guidelines on how a public functionary should behave publicly,” he offered.
Meanwhile, solicitor general Tushar Mehta accepted that politicians should be more cautious in speech. However, he added that it might not be possible for the court to lay down a blanket restriction on all politicians, according to LiveLaw.
