Supreme Court disposes of two-decade privilege versus free speech reference

Supreme Court disposes of two-decade privilege versus free speech reference

A seven-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on 6 October 2026 took less than half an hour to dispose of as infructuous a reference on whether legislative privilege can be used to choke free speech, after Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly counsel revealed that the underlying 2003 resolution had been withdrawn back in 2004. The case arose when the Tamil Nadu Assembly passed a resolution accusing The Hindu's editorial staff of breaching legislative privilege over an editorial critical of then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, prompting a police raid on the newspaper's Chennai office. The Bench left the larger legal questions on the interplay between Articles 194, 19 and 21 open for a future, appropriate case.