Kaushal Kishor Vs State of Uttar Pradesh & Ors. (Supreme Court of India)
A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court considered a reference arising from Writ Petition (Criminal) No. 113 of 2016 and a tagged Special Leave Petition (Civil) (Diary) No. 34629 of 2017 concerning statements made by Ministers and their constitutional implications. The reference arose after a three-Judge Bench considered the issues to be of great importance and the Constitution Bench framed five questions relating to restrictions on free speech under Article 19(2), enforceability of Articles 19 and 21 against non-State actors, the State’s duty to protect citizens under Article 21, attribution of a Minister’s statements to the Government, and constitutional tort.
The writ petition arose from an incident in which the petitioner alleged that while travelling with his family they were attacked, cash and jewellery were robbed, and his wife and minor daughter were gang raped. After registration of an FIR, the then Minister for Urban Development of Uttar Pradesh allegedly described the incident as a political conspiracy. The petitioner sought, among other reliefs, monitoring of the investigation, transfer of trial outside the State, and action against the Minister for his statements. The tagged Special Leave Petition originated from dismissal of two public interest writ petitions by the Kerala High Court challenging allegedly derogatory statements made by a Minister and seeking directions for a code of conduct and action against him. The High Court held that such matters were within the realm of moral values and that framing a code of conduct was not within the Court’s domain.
