The Constitution of India guarantees freedom of speech and expression. But the freedom is subject to certain reasonable restrictions imposed by the State. These restrictions may relate to which of the following? 1. Defamation 2. Decency or morality 3. Incitement to an offence Select the correct answer using the code given below:
- (a)1 only
- (b)2 and 3 only
- (c)1 and 3 only
- (d)1, 2 and 3
Correct — D, 1, 2 and 3. Article 19(2) lists eight grounds on which the State may impose reasonable restrictions on freedom of speech and expression, and all three items in the stem are among them. The clause allows restriction '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'. Decency or morality appears there in those exact words, and defamation and incitement to an offence close the list. Nothing has to be inferred; the three statements are three of the eight named grounds, so all of them qualify.
- (a)1 only — Keeps defamation alone and drops two grounds that are equally on the face of Article 19(2).
- (b)2 and 3 only — Drops defamation, which is named in the clause and is one of the oldest recognised limits on speech.
- (c)1 and 3 only — Drops decency or morality, which is also named in the clause and is the ground on which obscenity law is defended.
Article 19(1)(a) guarantees freedom of speech and expression to citizens, and Article 19(2) is the accompanying limitation clause. Two features of that clause matter. First, the grounds are exhaustive — a restriction that cannot be brought under one of the eight named heads fails, whatever its merits. Second, the restriction must be reasonable, which the courts test for proportionality and for a real connection between the restriction and the ground invoked. The first three grounds, sovereignty and integrity of India, friendly relations with foreign States and public order, were not in the original text; sovereignty and integrity came in by the Sixteenth Amendment in 1963, and friendly relations and public order by the First Amendment in 1951.
Statements items on Fundamental Rights are usually built so that one plausible but unlisted ground is slipped in — national development, or public interest, or hurting sentiments — and the candidate has to notice that it is not in the clause. Here the examiner has not done that: all three are genuine grounds, and the answer is the all-of-them option. The lesson to carry forward is the checking habit rather than the answer: read each proposed ground against the eight in Article 19(2), and reject anything that is not there in terms.
- Article 19(2) permits reasonable restrictions on eight grounds and no others.
- The eight are sovereignty and integrity of India, security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality, contempt of court, defamation, and incitement to an offence.
- Public order and friendly relations with foreign States were added by the Constitution (First Amendment) Act, 1951.
- Sovereignty and integrity of India was added by the Constitution (Sixteenth Amendment) Act, 1963.
- A restriction must be both within a named ground and reasonable; the courts decide reasonableness.
All three statements name grounds that appear in the clause, so the answer is all of them.
- Accepting an unlisted ground such as public interest or national development as if it were in Article 19(2).
- Forgetting that a restriction must be reasonable as well as within a named ground.
- Assuming Article 19 rights are available to everyone; they are guaranteed to citizens.
As a statements-and-code item listing candidate grounds, or as a question on which freedom a named restriction attaches to.
Article 19(1) of the Constitution of India, as it stands amended, includes which of the following ? 1. Freedom of speech and expression 2. Assemble peaceably and without arms 3. To acquire and dispose property 4. To move freely throughout the territory of India Select the correct answer using the code given below :
- (a) 1 and 2 only
- (b) 1, 2, 3 and 4
- (c) 4 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 4 only
Answer(d) 1, 2 and 4 only
The other half of the same Article. This question asks what may be restricted under clause (2); that 2022 paper asks what clause (1) still guarantees after the right to property was taken out of it.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following is not a ground on which Article 19(2) permits restrictions on freedom of speech and expression?
- (a)Contempt of court
- (b)Economic development of the country
- (c)Friendly relations with foreign States
- (d)Incitement to an offence
Answer(b) Economic development of the country — the eight grounds in Article 19(2) are exhaustive, and this is not among them.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The ground 'sovereignty and integrity of India' was added to Article 19(2) by which one of the following amendments?
- (a)First Amendment, 1951
- (b)Sixteenth Amendment, 1963
- (c)Forty-second Amendment, 1976
- (d)Forty-fourth Amendment, 1978
Answer(b) Sixteenth Amendment, 1963 — the First Amendment had earlier added public order and friendly relations with foreign States.