Talk But With Care: On Freedom Of Speech, Supreme Court Advises Restraint

Freedom of speech and expression is important but citizens must exercise restraint, the Supreme Court said today while hearing an appeal over a controversial post on X. 

The petition was from Wajahat Khan, who had complained against social media influencer Sharmistha Panoli over her communal videos on social media on Operation Sindoor. 

But he was arrested by the Kolkata police when his communal tweets made earlier surfaced. Several police cases were also filed against him across the country.

He had approached the Supreme Court seeking that the cases against him filed across six states -- including Assam, Bengal, Maharashtra, Haryana and Delhi -- be scrapped or clubbed together.

"We are talking about citizens! If they want to enjoy freedom of speech and expression, there has to be some restraint. They can't abuse freedom this way," Justice BV Nagarathana said today, referring to the larger issue of citizens misusing and abusing freedom, which, she said, "clogs" the legal system.

"Why can't citizens regulate Themselves? They just press a button and everything is posted online... It an abuse of the freedom," added Justice Nagarathna, who was hearing the matter along with Justice Satish Chandra Sharma. 

The judge said that restraint is crucial in the interest of fraternity, secularism and dignity of individuals, "it is not just about this petitioner... we will have to go into this beyond the petitioner".

"Citizens must know the value of freedom of speech and expression. If they don't, the state will step in and who wants the state to step in? Nobody wants the state to step in," she said.

Clarifying that having an opinion "is one thing but to say that in a particular way is an abuse," she pointed out that social media has no filtering process. 

"Unfortunately, it is very difficult to have self restraint in such case. And there is no restriction. In media, an editor will vet it but here all you need is to have an account," said the counsel for state.

Sometimes these matters will not come in the court in the context of hate speech, the court said.  

"My learned brother rightly said that there should be fraternity between the citizens then all this hate will come down," Justice Nagarathna added.