Context:
Madras High Court judgement that the freedom of expressions of artists and authors should be protected and instead of asking them not to publish/display their work by citing reasons of law and order, the state should focus on maintaining law and order
What HC has said?
- Clarifying the real intent of freedom of speech as described in Article 19(1)(a) of the constitution, the court ruled that, the presumption of this article is freedom of speech and not restriction, so till the time the court does not feel that the matter comes under the ambit of reasonable restrictions under Article 19(2), the freedom of speech must be guaranteed no matter what the opinion of a section of society is
- Court also suggested to institute an expert body which would deal with the situation where there are conflict of views related to art, literature etc. This expert body should consist of people qualified in the branch of art and creative literature
- Court has also asked the state to ensure that proper protection and security is provided to the artists and author when they are attacked by a section of society due to their work