ARTICLE 19(1)(A)

All citizens shall have the right to freedom of speech and expression.

Freedom of Speech and Expression:

Article 19 of the Constitution provides freedom of speech which is the right to express one’s opinion freely
without any fear through oral/ written/ electronic/ broadcasting/ press. Freedom of expression includes
Freedom of Press. It covers the blogs and websites too.
Landmark Case:
Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India: Freedom of speech and expression has no geographical limitation and it
carries with it the right of a citizen to gather information and to exchange thought with others not only in
India but abroad also.
 LINK WITH ARTICLE 19(2)

Nothing in sub clause (a) of clause (1) shall affect the operation of any existing law,
or prevent the State from making any law, in so far as such law imposes reasonable
restrictions on the exercise of the right conferred by the said sub clause 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.
Balancing Freedom: The Dilemma Of Free Speech In Democracy

Right to free speech is democracy’s precious gift, but not when it stifles others’ voices.
A speech on national integrity can get you jailed in India while the leaders and members
of the ruling party can openly make anti muslim hate speeches — such is the state of
free speech in today’s India.
Article 19(1) of the Constitution of India guarantees freedom of speech, although this
right is not absolute and comes with some reasonable restrictions outlined under Article
19(2).
While genuine criticism meets severe suppression on one end, hate speech runs amok
in the garb of free expression on the other.
 Two Major Free Speech Challenges Faced By
India
So, broadly, there are two kinds of challenges that free speech faces in our India today.

CASE- 1:

Free speech is increasingly being equated with absolute speech.

CASE- 2:

The existing legal machinery is not adequate to guarantee freedom of speech and needs
to be revised.
 Free Speech Challenges ( Case- 1)
In India free speech has become a tool to normalize hate speech and to silence minorities. While the
government clamps down on its critics, it gives a free pass to those who align with its values. Hate speech
can air on national television as long as the targeted community is a minority.

‘Keeping Up’ with the times

Social media has given a voice to everyone. But the digital world, like our real world, is not a level-playing
field and those with power quickly learned how to use it to their advantage.
In India, on top of direct suppression of online speech by arrests and local internet shutdowns, there are
now methods of indirect suppression — troll armies that abuse people and flooding tactics (fake news,
propaganda bots, paid commentators) that drown out real voices. It is most often women and minorities
who are targeted online.
 Anti-Muslim Hate Speech At An All-Time High
In India
75% of hate speech events in BJP-ruled States: Report
In 2023, India recorded 668 documented hate speech events that targeted Muslims, according to a
report released by India Hate Lab, a Washington DC-based group that documents hate speech
against India’s religious minorities. The report, titled ‘Hate Speech Events in India’, noted that while
255 events took place in the first half of 2023, “the number rose to 413 in the second half of the
year, a 62% increase”.
About 75% of the events (498) took place in BJP-ruled States, Union Territories (administered by
the BJP-led Central government), and Delhi (police and public order comes under the Union
government’s purview).
“Interestingly, hate speech events were more likely
to involve BJP leaders in non-BJP-ruled states,” the
report noted, observing that only 10.6% of events
in BJP-ruled States included BJP leaders, whereas
the figure rose to 27.6% in non-BJP ruled States,
“suggesting that BJP is more likely to partake in
hate speech when attempting to make inroads in
non-BJP ruled states”.

Thakur Raja Singh, the BJP MLA from Telangana,

was identified as having delivered the highest
number of dangerous speech events at 14
 Case Study: Hate Speech And Violence

This link between hate speech and violence is best exemplified by the brutal violence that broke out in
northern India on July 31, 2023.

The hate speech and violence in Haryana, particularly Nuh, escalated due to orchestrated efforts by Hindu
nationalist groups. Events organized by these groups, like Gau Rakhsa Dal and Bajrang Dal, featured
incendiary rhetoric against Muslims, inciting violence.

Cow vigilante violence was prevalent, with documented incidents targeting Muslim drivers. Hate speeches
culminated in a brutal riot on July 31, 2023, further fueled by inflammatory remarks from leaders like
VHP's Surendra Jain.

The violence spread, with calls to attack Muslims in other towns and slogans inciting further hatred. In
Gurugram, mobs perpetrated heinous acts against Muslims, including the murder of a cleric and
destruction of Muslim establishments, forcing families to flee.
 News Channels Causing Rift In Society, Says SC
While Hearing Hate Speech Cases
On January 13, 2023, the Supreme Court observed that television channels in India are dividing society because they are motivated by
agendas, competing to sensationalize news, and follow the instructions of their funders. This observation came after the Supreme Court
bench of Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna heard a number of petitions regarding incidents of hate speech and actions to be
taken over them.

The above-mentioned petitions filed were filed in the Supreme court highlighting the various instances wherein hate speeches were
made against the Muslim community, namely the "UPSC Jihad" campaign by Sudarshan News TV, the "Corona jihad" campaign in
response to the Tablighi Jamaat issue and the Dharam Sansad meetings where allegedly anti-Muslim statements were made in
Uttarakhand. These petitions had further urged the Supreme Court to formulate such broad guidelines to curb hate speech.

Such channels, the bench continued, are causing rifts in society. The bench further said then one must behave like they have earned the
right to free speech and expression when they assert it. Otherwise, Justice Joseph said, "What dignity is left for us?""We require free
and balanced press. Free, but balanced too", Justice Nagarathna had added, as provided by Livelaw.

The country's major television news networks operate in a way that the highest court found to be particularly concerning in September,
2022 adding that they frequently allow for hate speech and subsequently avoid punishment. Politicians also stand to gain the most from
the exposure of their hate rhetoric.
 Free Speech Challenges ( Case-2)
DROWNING VOICES
How legal frameworks are being used to throttle free speech and the media

The number of journalists, activists, scholars, students charged under draconian laws is an indication of the perilous
state of free speech in India. You have a situation where people are being put in, not because of any incident which
has happened, but over suspicion.

It is time to question the genesis of this law of CRPC and IPC which were derived from British colonial laws which
were used to quell dissent simply on the grounds of suspicion.

Three rights organizations – Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Security Network – in a joint
statement have pointed to the exploitative nature of the terror and money laundering laws in India- “Draconian
laws introduced or adapted to this end include the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA), the Unlawful
Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Their actions have
flouted both FATF’s standards and international human rights law,” the group claims in their joint statement.
UAPA Case Data Suggests That Process Is Indeed
the Punishment
Data revealed by the Union home ministry in the Rajya Sabha showed that 97.5% of people arrested under UAPA between 2016 and
2020 have been imprisoned for multiple years while waiting for trial.

Figures released by the Union home ministry in the Rajya Sabha have backed up the belief that the ‘process is the punishment‘,
especially when cases are registered under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

In a written reply to a question by CPI(M) MP A.A. Rahim in the Rajya Sabha, Union minister of state for home Nityanand Rai revealed
that a total of 5,027 cases – in which 24,134 people are accused – were registered under the UAPA from 2016 to 2020 in various parts
of the country.

According to the home ministry, just 212 of the 24,134 people were convicted, while 386 people who were accused under the UAPA
have been acquitted.

The data reveals that an overwhelming majority (97.5%) of people arrested under the anti-terror law – which makes obtaining bail
virtually impossible – have been imprisoned for multiple years while waiting for trial. The figures show that 3,047 people have been
undertrial prisoners since 2016, 4,098 since 2017, 4,862 since 2018, 5,645 since 2019 and 6,482 since 2020.
 Stand Of Former Judges On UAPA

UAPA allows authorities to designate someone as ‘terrorist’ and detain them

without producing any incriminating evidence.

Several former judges, civil servants and activists have made the case for the law
to be repealed, saying it has “many flaws and loopholes” that make it amenable to
large-scale abuse and misuse by “some politicians and overzealous policemen”.
 Father Stan Swamy’s Death
The government argues the UAPA law is necessary to fight terrorism. In 2019, Home Minister Amit Shah
told parliament the law was essential to keep security agencies “one step ahead of terrorists”.

But last month, while awaiting bail on medical grounds, an 84-year-old Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist
died in judicial custody. He had been jailed since 2020 under the anti-terror law.

“How can an old, frail man who fought for people’s rights be accused of terrorism?” said Father Cedric
Prakash, an activist who worked with Swamy for more than 40 years.

Swamy was jailed alongside 15 other activists and academics. He maintained his innocence, saying he was
singled out for his work and writings on caste injustice and the struggles faced by marginalised groups.

Carolyn Nash, the Asia advocacy director at rights watchdog Amnesty International, said Swamy’s death in
custody was “a chilling and tragic example of how the UAPA facilitates the government’s human rights
abuses” and was evidence of its “disproportionate and abusive use”.
 ‘Only One Solution: The Law Must Go’
The police and investigators must be held accountable and said heavy costs should
be imposed on them for “frivolous arrests”.
The denial of bail under the law certainly favours the state. This interpretation
must be revisited.
The judiciary has to be proactive in this regard and must realise that it is dealing
with cases of personal liberty which is being snatched away in some instances
without any cause.
 Sedition Has No Room In Modern Democracies,
Time For The Law To Be Repealed
Section 124A of the IPC, a colonial law which made sedition a crime, in democratic India.

In England, the 17th century law on sedition was removed in early 2010 through the Coroners and Justice
Act, 2009, but it continues even today in independent India.

The law has been misused and abused several times even though convictions are extremely rare.

Individuals charged with sedition have to live without their passport, are barred from government jobs and
must produce themselves in court at all times as and when required – if they have got bail, that is. The legal
costs, the time involved, the effort and the stress for the accused are enormous.

The charges have rarely stuck in most cases, but the process itself becomes the punishment.

It is so difficult to fight a legal system, even if the system is not biased. And if it is?
Only 4 Sedition Cases Saw Conviction In 4 Years:
NCRB
According to the report, between 2015
and 2019, 191 sedition cases were filed,
of which trials were completed in 43
cases. The prosecution managed to get a
conviction only in four cases. In 2016, six
sedition cases were dropped by the
police for the lack of evidence and two
were termed as false cases in final
reports.The number of sedition cases that
were filed nearly doubled between 2015
and 2018.
 "Enthusiastic Prosecution, Faltering
Convictions: The Sedition Law Dilemma"
One such example is,
On a private complaint of sedition, little children of a school in Bidar, in north Karnataka, were
questioned by the police in 2020 for doing a play against the Citizenship Amendment Act, and a
widowed parent was sent to jail for a substantial time. What would a private person ordinarily
understand of the nuances of sedition? More importantly, why should the police not drop such
complaints right away as unfit for prosecution?
In some sedition cases, the police did not even file the chargesheets within three months, allowing
the accused to get bail. How flimsy, how insincere, is the use of the law, that the police are not
even bothered about monitoring a case of sedition against the state!
The News IT Rules Herald India's 'Single Source
Of Truth' Governance:
The efforts by the Ministry of Information Technology and Electronics on setting up a ‘Fact Checking Unit’
to fact check social media platforms is clearly a censorship drive.

The Minister of State for Information Technology and Electronics has made it clear; the government is the
only body with access to factual data to certify any online speech as fake or otherwise.

In any democracy, there can be multiple truths – beliefs that are often promoted through various politics.
One can have multiple beliefs of why the government ordered demonetisation or read down Article 370.

The government’s version of truths are not often facts and one cannot be forced to accept them as the
only truth.
Bills Possessing Threat To Free Speech In Digital
India:
Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill, Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media
Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, Indian Telecommunications Bill, 2022, Digital Personal Data Protection Act,
2023, Press and Registration of Periodicals Bill- Through these laws, the government will create an
Orwellian framework that will distribute powers to control media, censor content and target critical voices.

Fake news is a problem in our post-truth world and addressing it requires education, training our
population about the dangers through digital literacy. This is especially important with the rise of synthetic
reality with artificial intelligence which are manufacturing content that has never happened and is not real.

Instead, we are being offered a solution that undermines free speech and sets us back as a society.
 India: 'Internet Shutdown Capital Of The World'
For five successive years, India has topped the global list of states that cut off the internet to their citizens.

In August 2017 the Centre formulated the “Temporary Suspension of Telecom Services (Public Emergency
or Public Safety) Rules, 2017” (referred to as the “Shutdown Rules, 2017”) which now specifically provided
for a legal mechanism for disrupting Internet access.

Democracy needs information to function. There seems to be no clear legal standard, transparency and
disclosure how the Internet is being disrupted in India. This is a worrying trend for the world’s largest
democracy.

One of the reasons provided to shut down the internet is to stop spreading of the fake news and incidents
of violence that may further fuel the violence, but the government today is misusing them to censor critical
news and allowing fake news to spread continuously thus supporting the government's propaganda.
 Internet Shutdown: Report
The #KeepItOn campaign was launched by a coalition of about 70 organisations in 2016. Since then, India has
accounted for approximately 58% of all shutdowns documented in Access Now’s Shutdown Tracker Optimization
Project (STOP database).
 Tackling Disinformation
Governments across the world say that they enforce an internet shutdown to stop the flow of
misinformation during a state of crisis.

In the Indian context, a study( Of Blackouts and Bandhs:The Strategy and Structure of Disconnected
Protest in India- Jan Rydzak, Stanford Global Digital Policy Incubator) has shown that in Kashmir “rumors
and disinformation continue to spread with or without access to digital communication networks, whose
primary role is that of accelerators of information diffusion.”

Manipur Is Further Proof That Internet Shutdowns Do More Harm than Good.The violence in Manipur
needs to be controlled at large, but what is being controlled is the information about Manipur. The
Government of India and Manipur are both equally responsible in the active censorship of media and
internet in the state.
 Court Judgement: Right To Internet Access

In September 2019, the Kerala high court in a landmark decision held that the right to
internet access is a fundamental right. The court interpreted the ambit of the right to internet
to various fundamental rights including the right to education, right to privacy, etc.

In the Anuradha Bhasin judgment, the Supreme Court issued detailed guidelines and
categorically made clear that the freedom of speech and expression and the freedom to
practice any profession or carry on any trade, business or occupation over the medium of the
internet enjoys constitutional protection under Article 19(1)(a) and Article 19(1)(g) of the
Constitution. But every bit of it has been flouted by various governments.
 Role Of Judiciary
Free India has used a series of laws to control the personal freedom of those who
have spoken against the policies of the state. It can make a loyal Indian anti-
national by the stroke of a dishonest policeman’s pen in an FIR.
Draconian and other such laws have ensured that, "There is freedom of speech,
but we cannot guarantee freedom after speech" in India.
The Supreme court must take judicial note of government imposing internet
shutdowns to shut down dissent and misuse of PMLA, UAPA and other such laws
and acts.
 CONCLUSION
Democracy is not another name of majoritarianism, on the contrary, it is a system to
include every voice, where thought of every person is counted, irrespective of the
number of the people backing that idea. In a democracy, it is natural that there will be
different and conflicting interpretations of a given account of an event. Not only
viewpoints which constitute the majority are to be considered, but at the same time,
dissenting and critical opinions should also be acknowledged. Free speech is protected
because it is necessary to achieve some greater, often ultimate, social good.
In the unforgettable words of Charles Bradlaugh: "Better a thousand fold abuse of free
speech than denial of free speech." The abuse dies in a day but the denial slays the life
of the people and entombs the hopes of the race.
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