Supreme Court judge Justice Surya Kant on Friday said that the right to freedom of speech needs to be zealously protected, especially for journalists and the media.

“There cannot be any second opinion that the right to free speech needs to be zealously protected and we must take all measures to protect that right. There may be some direct or indirect efforts in different ways [to curtail the right to free speech] because it is an innovative world and people keep on inventing different kinds of methods and mechanisms. Sometimes, these are misused to trample on this right. But I think our system is such…  It [freedom of speech] is not only a constitutional guarantee but a part of the right to dignified life. This right to dignified life also includes the right to free speech,” he was quoted as saying by Bar&Bench.

“Particularly, for the journalists and media that rights need to remain protected, subject to whatever constitutional restrictions are there. These are qualified as reasonable restrictions beyond that, the right must be protected. Much also depends on case to case basis also. Sometimes we may find that it qualifies as reasonable restriction but when it is found that in the name of reasonable restriction, the effort was to gag then that has been strongly disapproved by the courts,” he added.

Justice Kant  further said that innovative and different ways may be devised to curtail the right to free speech but such efforts have been strongly disapproved by the courts. He was speaking at a book launch event.

Earlier in 2022 during the Nupur Sharma row, when the Supreme Court was hearing the matter involving Sharma, Justice Kant had questioned her remarks on Islamic history. “Her loose tongue has set the entire country on fire,” he had remarked as per OpIndia. Justice Surya Kant had noted, “She is single-handedly responsible for what is happening in the country”.

Notably, following Sharma’s remarks on Islamic history, there were riots and murders across the country by the Islamists.