Citizens Have Right To Criticise Scrapping Of Article 370: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court today upheld the right to dissent, saying every criticism is not an offence and if it were thought so, democracy would not survive. The police should be sensitised about freedom of speech granted by the Constitution, the court said, throwing out a case against a man who had made adverse comments on the scrapping of Article 370, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir.  

"Now is the time to educate our police machinery about the concept of freedom of speech and expression guaranteed by Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution and the limits of reasonable restraint on them… They should be sensitized about the democratic values enshrined in our Constitution,' said the judges.