JUDGMENT - A.P. SHAH, J. :----John Stuart Mill, a great thinker of 19th Century in his famous treatise "Utilitarianism, Liberty and Representative Government" neatly explained the importance of free speech expression in these words :

"But the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth; if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error."

Indeed, freedom of speech and expression has now been accepted as a natural right which a human being acquires on birth. It is, therefore, regarded as a basic human right. The words "freedom of speech and expression" appearing in Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution has been construed by the Supreme Court to include freedom to circulate one's view by words of mouth or in writing or through audio-visual instrumentalities. Thus every citizen of this free country has the right to air his or her vie

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