Having a free and independent media is the cornerstone of democracy. Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution includes the freedom to express one’s ideas through any media like words, writings, pictures, paintings, visual representations, gestures, signs, etc. This includes publishing and propagating ideas. Thus, the freedom of media, i.e., the press and the audio-visual media (radio, podcasts, television news channels, YouTube, etc) is also protected under the freedom of expression.
In India, unlike in the United States, there is no separate constitutional provision for freedom of the press but it flows from Article 19(1)(a). As a result, the freedom of the press in India stands on the same footing as the freedom of speech of a citizen, and the press is subject to the same set of reasonable restrictions under Article 19(2). Media freedom includes a bundle of rights. Some of these rights are:
Certain organisations like the security and intelligence agencies are excluded from giving information under the purview of this law. A list of these excluded organisations is provided in the Second Schedule to the RTI Act. However, information relating to corruption or human rights violations in such organisations can be asked for and provided after the Central Information Commission agrees to it. This has to be provided in 45 days.
If you face any grievance or you have a complaint regarding the education of a child, you can approach the following authorities:
Students/Parents/Any person
Any person, including parents, can file a complaint with:
Local Authorities
Complaints can be made to Gram Panchayat or the Block Education Officer. The Block Education officer is in charge of the education of students within their block and also supervises the functioning of the schools.
National/State Commission for Protection of Child Rights
The National and State Commission for Protection of Child Rights works for the protection of all children in the 0 to 18 years age group. Their work includes addressing children in backward or vulnerable communities. If you have any grievances, you can complain not only to the National Commission but also to the commissions set up in each state. Any person aggrieved by the decision of the local authority can file an appeal to the State Commission for Protection for Child Rights in case of grievances. The helpline numbers and email ids differ from state to state but can be found on their website.
Some immediate ways you can complain to the National Commission are:
Online
The government has an online complaint system where you can file your complaint.
Via Phone:
You can contact the following numbers:
- National Commission for Protection of Child Rights- 9868235077
- Childline India (Childline is a helpline for offences committed against children)- 1098
Via Email:
You can send an email to the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights: pocsoebox-ncpcr@gov.in
Via Post/Letter/Messenger:
You can write to the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights with your complaint or send a messenger to this address:
NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR PROTECTION OF CHILD RIGHTS (NCPCR)
5th Floor, Chandralok Building 36, Janpath,
New Delhi-110001 India.
Courts
Complaints can also be taken to court since the Right to Education is a fundamental right for children. You should take the help of a lawyer for this.
The press enjoys the right to publish information and opinion. It includes the right to report news, and publish the views of the editor, and other authors published under the editors’ discretion.
The law provides that all students between the ages of six to fourteen years who enrol and attend the school studying between I to VIII classes shall be entitled to nutritious meals at no cost. The funds for such meals shall be provided by the state government. However, implementation of the scheme and monitoring of the quality and preparation of the meal is overseen by the School Management Committee. These meals should be provided on all days except school holidays. The place of service for such meals is at school only.
If for any reason, the mid-day meal is not provided to the child on any day, a food security allowance consisting of food grains and money shall be paid by the State Government to every child by the 15th of next month. The allowance includes food grains and money. It shall be based on the number of food grains entitled to the child and the cooking cost prevailing in the state. Children who voluntarily do not consume the mid-day meal, however, shall not be entitled to such allowance.
Media freedom includes both the right to publish and the right to circulate information and opinion. In several cases, courts have upheld the freedom of circulation as a crucial aspect of the freedom of expression.
In 1950, the Supreme Court ruled on a challenge to an order of the State of Madras banning the entry and circulation of an English Journal called “Cross Roads”, on grounds of public safety and public order. This journal was printed and published in Bombay. The journal was banned under the Madras Maintenance of Public Order Act 1949. The court quashed the concerned provision of the Act and the associated government order, as they restricted free speech and expression.
Another case challenged the Central government’s Newsprint Policy of 1972-73 which compelled newspapers to compromise between circulation and content by creating price brackets for a higher number of pages. Here, the Supreme Court held that “The right to determine the number of pages has been held to be an aspect of the freedom of expression as it has a direct impact on the quantity and quality of content being published.” Though such restriction was imposed for economic reasons, it negatively impacted the freedom of the press, as they had to limit their coverage to obey the policy, which violated the right to circulation.
The National Council for Teacher Education prescribes the qualifications for teachers in India. One of the essential qualifications for a person to be eligible for appointment as a teacher in any of the schools is that he/she should pass the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) which will be conducted by the appropriate Government. Other than this, there are different qualifications required for teaching different classes.
Teachers of Class 1-5
Qualifications include:
- Senior Secondary with at least 50% marks and a 2-year diploma in elementary education or
- 4 year Bachelor in Elementary Education or a 2-year diploma in Education (special education).
Teachers of Class 6-8:
Qualifications include:
- B.A/ B.Sc degree and a 2-year diploma in elementary education. Or, B.A/ B.Sc degree with at least 50% marks and a 1-year bachelor in education or a 1-year B.Ed (special education)
- Or, a senior secondary with at least 50% marks and 4 year Bachelor in Elementary Education or 4-year B.A/B.Sc.Ed
Media freedom includes the right to report proceedings of the Court. In response to a plea by the Election Commission of India, the Supreme Court stated that the media has the right to report Court proceedings, including the oral observations of judges. The statement in question was an oral observation by the Madras High Court where it said that the Election Commission of India could be charged with murder for allowing political rallies during the peak of the COVID-19 wave in India. This statement was widely reported in the media.
It is the duty of the government and the local authorities to ensure that children from disadvantaged groups are not discriminated against and are able to complete their elementary education. Parents of children belonging to disadvantaged groups should get representation in the School Management Committees in proportion to the number of such students enrolled. Specified category schools and unaided private schools are mandated to admit in first class (Class 1), children belonging to weaker sections and disadvantaged groups to a minimum of 25% of the class size.
Children with HIV
While children belonging to disadvantaged groups earlier did not extend to children with HIV, the Supreme Court of India ordered that the State Governments should consider adding children living with or affected by HIV to disadvantaged groups by way of notification given here. Consequently, children with HIV are counted under disadvantaged groups for the Right to Education in Union Territories of Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. Karnataka also includes children with HIV under disadvantaged groups. More states may include children with HIV or affected by HIV in the disadvantaged groups for the purpose of RTE.
Children belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes
Children belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are also included under the category of disadvantaged groups in the RTE law. Certain states in India give priority to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in case of 25% admissions to disadvantaged categories in specific categories and unaided private schools. For example, the state of Haryana provides for a reservation of 5% seats out of the 25% admissions for Scheduled Castes. Similarly, the state of Karnataka has 7.5% and 1.5% seats EWS seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes respectively.
Children with disabilities
All children, who are citizens of India have a right to education, including children with disabilities. The Constitution of India provides that nobody can be denied admission into any educational institution based on their religion, race, caste or language Moreover, the State is directed to provide free and compulsory education for all until the age of 14 years and no child can be denied admission to any educational institution maintained by state funds on grounds such as religion, race, caste or language.
A child with a disability has special rights for getting an education. Some of these are:
- The child can get free education till she turns 18.
- The child can get special books and equipment that s/he needs for free from the government.
Also, the government has to take special steps to help children with disabilities get an education including:
- Provision of safe transport facilities to enable them to attend school and complete elementary education.
- Materials for special learning and educational support.
- Provision of scholarships, part-time classes, informal education and make it easier for such children to give exams etc. A child with 80% disability or two or more disabilities can choose to be educated at home.
Everyone enjoys the freedom of artistic expression and creativity. Artistic expression includes the freedom to imagine, create, propagate art and artistic works. It also includes access to art and artistic works in any manner not prohibited by law. So, the work of an author, a poet, a painter, a cartoonist, a filmmaker, a musician, an actor, etc are all protected under the freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a).
The scope of this right can be understood through the following:
Pre-censorship is the prior restraint on art or artistic work. Pre-censorship happens when the State imposes prior restraint to restrict the freedom of artistic expression through any form of art. Prior censorship of artistic work is allowed in India in specific circumstances.
In India, there have been instances of prior censorship of films. In 1970, the Supreme Court while deciding a challenge to the pre-censorship of a short film ‘A Tale of Four Cities’ refused to accept the distinction between pre-censorship and censorship in general and considered both to be within the scope of reasonable restrictions under Article 19(2). The Court found that pre-censorship is permitted under the Constitution for maintenance of public order and tranquillity.
However, the Supreme Court decides such cases based on their specific facts. For instance, in a 2018 judgement, the Supreme Court ruled against prior restraint on the screening of the film Padmaavat since the requisite Censor Board permissions had been taken. Gujarat and Rajasthan governments had banned the screening on grounds of public order. The Court held that artistic expression is an inseparable part of freedom of speech under Article 19(1)(a). After the Central Board of Film Certification has already certified a film as per its mandate and internal reviewing policies, individual governments cannot exercise prior restraint on the film.
The right to freedom of speech and expression covers the right of artists to exhibit all forms of art, even those that showcase obscenity or nudity in some form. The Supreme Court, in its approach to such issues, has followed a case-by-case analysis, and tried to balance the freedom of artistic expression with the larger interest of the community.
In 1996, the Supreme Court set aside a decision of the Delhi High Court, which had temporarily restrained the screening of the film ‘Bandit Queen’ (on the grounds of obscenity) until a fresh ‘A’ certificate was issued with several cuts and changes in the film. The Court reinstated the ‘A’ certificate and observed that the scenes with nudity were crucial to the overall narration of the story. Through this judgement, the Supreme Court emphasised the importance of allowing social critique through artistic expression.
In 2008, the Delhi High Court was faced with a petition challenging Maqbool Fida Husain’s painting of Mother India as obscene. The High Court, while holding that the painting was not obscene, highlighted that a balance between obscenity and creative artistic expression should be reached depending on the current standards, the pervasive character of the artistic expression over obscenity, and also if the art served any public interest. The court must consider the perspective of the artist and the surrounding circumstances of a painting.
The right to freedom of speech and expression protects the right to protect one’s artistic creation from piracy. It also includes the right to defend one’s creation from copying and circulation of pirated material or content.
In a 2019 decision, the Delhi High Court, while deciding petitions to stop websites streaming pirated content, held that just as constitutional freedoms are regulated under reasonable restrictions, appropriate lines can be drawn to restrict access to infringing websites by creating a fine balance between freedoms and rights of everyone involved. The Delhi High Court, by issuing the first dynamic injunction in India, allowed the injunction holder to block all such content infringing websites through this order instead of filing separate suits for each infringement.
Article 19(1)(a) protects the rights of the speaker of commercial speech (such as advertisements and informational pamphlets) as well as the rights of an individual to listen, read, and receive it. Advertisements and other kinds of commercial speech disseminate information and benefit the public. Any limitation of the propagation, publication, and circulation of commercial speech violates the freedom of speech and expression. However, the freedom of commercial speech is subject to reasonable restrictions under Article 19(2). So, advertisements which are deceptive, unfair, misleading, and untruthful can be regulated. To read more about the law on misleading advertisements, read our explainer on Consumer Rights.
Some commercial speech rights are:
This right to regulate advertising space in newspapers and other similar media is vital to the freedom of expression. This is because the size of advertising space affects the price of the media and affects its circulation, which is itself an important part of the freedom of expression.
This right has been firmly entrenched through case law as well. In 1962, the Supreme Court held that a law which allows the government to control the allocation of advertising space among newspapers was unconstitutional. The Court invalidated a governmental policy controlling the price of newspapers with reference to their number of pages and advertising space. This was because this law violated the newspapers’ right to commercial speech.
The right to advertisement is protected as part of the freedom of speech. However, comparative advertisements, where two or more products are compared to bring out the advantages of the advertisers’ products, have been challenged on grounds of intellectual property and defamation.
The Delhi High Court faced a challenge to an advertisement for Complan, produced by Heinz in 2019.((Horlicks Limited v. Heinz India Private Limited, (2019) 256 DLT 468)) Horlicks Ltd. asked for an injunction on the grounds that it had unfavourably compared Heinz’s products with that of Horlicks, and had also infringed on its (Horlicks’) trademark.
The Delhi High Court observed that the comparison in the advertisement was fair, and advertisements for a product, which depicted a fair comparison with a competitive product, were permissible. It was a protected form of commercial expression under Article 19(1)(a), and could only be restricted by the limitations mentioned under Article 19(2), none of which applied to this case.
The Freedom of Political Expression is essential for maintaining democracy. Citizens express their political opinions from time to time by casting votes during elections, and more regularly by dissenting and criticising Government’s actions and policies. This right reinforces the idea that it is the citizens who give legitimacy to the government. It ensures accountability of the government and prevents them from stifling critical views. However, this right is subject to restrictions, and cannot extend to violence or any other activity that disrupts public order.
The right to political expression includes:
Casting of votes by citizens is the most visible form of political expression. This is a facet of the right of expression of an individual and is provided under Article 19(1)(a). It must be remembered that the “right to vote” by itself is not a fundamental right, but casting of the vote has been held to be a form of political expression.
The decision taken by a voter after verifying the credentials of the candidate either to vote or not is a form of expression protected under Article 19(1)(a).This should be read alongside section 79(d) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which defines “electoral right” to include the right of a person to “vote or refrain from voting at an election.” In the landmark case, People’s Union for Civil Liberties v. Union of India, the Supreme Court recognised that the fundamental right under Article 19(1)(a) read with the statutory right under section 79(d) is violated unreasonably if right not to vote effectively is denied and secrecy is breached.
It is interesting to note that through the PUCL case, the Supreme Court directed the Election Commission of India to provide for the “None of the Above (NOTA)” option in Electronic Voting Machines and ballot papers. This would ensure that those voters, who come to the polling booth and decide not to vote for any of the candidates in the fray, are able to exercise their right not to vote while maintaining their right of secrecy.
The right to protest is essential to maintain accountability and prevent arbitrary rule-making by the government. Courts have recognised that peaceful protests are immensely important in a democracy. The right to protest is protected under the right to freedom of speech and expression, and the authorities are not permitted to revoke or grant permission by going into the merits of the protest.
The right to criticise the Government, essential for maintaining accountability, is also a part of the freedom of speech and expression. Dissent and criticism have been hailed as crucial elements for a democracy.
This right also includes the right of a political rival, like anyone else, to criticise the government, and it cannot be curtailed on the charge of defamation. While criticism of the government and its officials may be valid, it cannot condone a political rival seemingly engaging in spreading false news and allegations, about a political personality, in a schematic and planned manner.) Criticism of this kind would amount to defamation and is not protected under Article 19(1)(a).
The Right to Know is fundamental to the right to freedom of expression. This is because the right to know promotes the free flow of information, and enables citizens to be better informed and helps citizens utilise their freedom of expression more effectively. A discussion on the pros and cons of a government policy is more nuanced and useful when sufficient information is available from the government. However, this right does not permit anyone to claim any and all sorts of official documents. Restrictions, especially those which concern national security or public order, are applicable. To know more about the law on right to information, read our explainer.
The right to know includes:
Unquestionably, the right to freedom of expression involves the right to receive information and public documents from government authorities and other organisations performing a public function. This covers asking for one’s examination answer scripts, to matters covered under official secrecy laws if sufficient public benefit and interest can be shown in such matters. However, this right cannot override the right to privacy; for instance, personal information of public officials which is not relevant to the public cannot be sought under this right.
The right to know about electoral candidates’ background emerges from the voters’ right to free speech and expression. Knowledge about the candidate enables the voters to develop their opinions on them. Public education is vital for the functioning of the process of popular government, and it strengthens the capacity of an individual in participating in decision-making processes.
Live streaming of cases of constitutional importance is considered to be supportive of the right to access justice. Providing “virtual” access of live court proceedings to all effectuates several rights, such as the right to open justice and public trial, and the right to know the latest legal developments. Live streaming also enables a large segment of people, be it young lawyers, journalists, civil society activists, academicians or students of law to view live proceedings on a real-time basis.
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