Brij Bhushan vs State of Delhi AIR 1950 SC 129

ABSTRACT Brij Bhushan v. State of Delhi is a groundbreaking case in the history of Constitutional law in India, resolving a constitutional dispute before the Supreme Court of India in 1950. Judgment is considered to be one of the earliest and most important cases related to Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India, which mandates freedom of speech and expression. The constitutionality of the government's pre-censorship regime for a newspaper was the main issue in the case.
It came on the eve of partition and the period of immediately after independence when public disorder and communal conflicts were on the rise. It was for the Supreme Court to establish whether such curbs on the freedom of the press by the State were permissible under Article 19(2) of the Constitution at the time.
The decision is significant, because it ruled freedom of the press is a fundamental element of freedom of speech and expression and that prior restraint on publication is a serious restriction on freedom of the press, freedom of speech and freedom of expression. This case study analyzes the facts, issues, judicial reasoning, constitutional implications and current implications of the case.