'Citizens must know value of freedom of speech, expression': says Supreme court

The Supreme Court on Monday emphasised that citizens must understand the value of the right to freedom of speech and expression and exercise selfrestraint as it deliberated on potential guidelines to regulate offensive social media posts reported news agency PTIA bench comprising Justices BV Nagarathna and KV Viswanathan was hearing a plea from Wazahat Khan who faces multiple FIRs in several states including West Bengal for posting content against a Hindu deity on XOne of the fundamental duties is to uphold the unity and integrity of the country India So that is being violated See all these divisive tendencies at least on social media must be curbed the court statedThe top court continued But to what extent can the state curb Instead why cant the citizens themselves regulate themselves Citizens must know the value of freedom of speech and expression If they dont then the state will step in mdash and who wants the state to step in Nobody wants the state to step inIn the interim the top court extended the interim protection from coercive action to Khan which was initially granted on 23rd June Khan had filed a complaint against another social media influencer Sharmistha Panoli for allegedly making communal remarks in a video reported PTIDuring the hearing Justice Nagarathna reiterated The citizens must know the value of the fundamental right of freedom of speech and expression The state can step in in case of violations nobody wants the state to step in The bench observed that the divisive tendency on social media had to be curbedIt added The freedom of speech and expression is a fundamental right But there is no selfrestraint and selfregulation If the citizens want to enjoy this fundamental right they will have to regulate themselves and there has to be some kind of selfrestraintReferring to Justice Viswanathanrsquos observations Justice Nagarathna further stated My learned brother rightly said that there should be fraternity between the citizens then all this hatred will come downWe are not speaking about censorship But in the interest of fraternity secularism and dignity of individuals we will have to go into this beyond this petition the bench observedMoreover the top court highlighted that the reasonable restrictions outlined under Article 192 of the Constitution on freedom of speech and expression had been rightly placed reported PTIHowever the court noted that cases arising from the abuse of freedom of speech and expression were clogging the legal systemThe bench also questioned why citizens were not exercising selfrestraint particularly when using social media platformsHaving an opinion is one thing but to say that in a particular way is an abuse Sometimes it will not come to the court in the context of hate speech My learned brother rightly said that there should be fraternity between the citizens then all this hate will come down Justice Nagarathna saidMoreover the bench asked Khanrsquos counsel to assist it in addressing the broader issue of selfregulation regarding citizensrsquo freedom of speech and expression While posting the next hearing for four weeks later the court ordered counsel for different states to file their responsesMeanwhile it is to note that Khan was arrested by Kolkata Police on June 9 He approached the apex court alleging that FIRs and complaints had been lodged against him in several states including Assam West Bengal Maharashtra and Haryana for certain old tweets he had made He argued that these FIRs were in retaliation for a complaint he filed against Panoli who was arrested and later released on bailWith inputs from PTI