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14 NUJS L. Rev. 360 (2021)
Re-Evaluating Free Speech Protections of Elected Representatives: Addressing Responsibility Concerns vis-a-vis Individual Dignity

handle is hein.journals/nujslr14 and id is 400 raw text is: RE-EVALUATINGFREE SPEECH PROTECTIONS OF ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES: ADDRESSING RESPONSIBILITY CONCERNS VIS-A-VIS INDIVIDUAL DIGNITY Tanishk Goyal & Sarthak Sethi* In July 2016, when a 13-year-old girl and her mother filed an FIR alleging that they had been gang-raped by a group of criminals on NH-91 in Bulandsheher, Uttar Pradesh, the then Cabinet Minister of the State, Azam Khan made a statement terming it a political conspiracy against the State Government'. In August 2016, the victims approached the Supreme Court and filed a writ peti- tion, seeking action against the minister for making such remarks about the incident. While the Court framed a wide range of issues in the petition rang- ing from collective responsibility of Ministers to the concept of Constitutional Torts, the scope ofthe presentpaper is only restricted to the conflict between the speech of elected representatives and individual dignity. Through the course of this paper, we try to determine the idea of individual dignity and use it to argue that the speech-acts of elected representatives should be restricted when they violate the two fundamental parameters of individual dignity embedded in the Constitution. It has been argued by the petitioners and the Amicus Curiae that Article 19(1)(a) rights can be restricted beyond Article 19(2) by Article 21 if they violate individual dignity. Contrastingly, through this paper, we shall be arguing that not only can the fundamental parameters of individual dignity be read into Article 19(2) of the Constitution of India, but they can withstand the rigorous standard of Constitutional scrutiny as well. TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction.................................... 361 A. Enlivening The Oaths Under II Determining The Responsibilty Schedule III of The of Elected Representatives Under Constitution...............................364 The Constitution (The 'What' B. The Responsibility to Safefuard Questions)...................................... 363 The Constitutional Guarantee of Individual Dignity................. 365 4th and 3rd year students at The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata. The authors would like to express their heartfelt gratitude to the Editors of the NUJS Law Review for their comments on the previous drafts of this article. The authors would also like to thank Professor (Dr.) Shameek Sen and Professor Agnidipto Tarafder for their invaluable inputs and timely encouragement. Errors or omissions, however, if any, solely remain ours.