Homebuyers have a right to peacefully protest against their builders: SC

A general view of Supreme Court in New Delhi.
| Photo Credit: Shashi Shekhar Kashyap

The Supreme Court has upheld the right of homebuyers to peacefully protest against builders, saying portraying their right to free speech as a criminal offence is a clear abuse of the law.

“A right to protest peacefully without falling foul of the law is a corresponding right, which the consumers ought to possess just as the seller enjoys his right to commercial speech. Any attempt to portray them as criminal offences, when the necessary ingredients are not made out, would be a clear abuse of process and should be nipped in the bud,” a Bench headed by Justice K.V. VIswanathan observed in a recent judgment.

The case stemmed from a unique manner of protest employed by unhappy homebuyers against a builder, A. Surti Developers. They erected a banner visible to the public at large setting out in English and Hindi their grievances against the builder.

The builder company took the homebuyers to court on the charge of damaging its reputation. The Metropolitan Magistrate Court, Borivali, Mumbai, summoned the homebuyers, who appealed to the Bombay High Court to quash the builder’s case. The High Court, however, turned down the plea, compelling them to move the apex court.

“Homebuyers and developers have not always been the best of friends. Instances are innumerable where the two have been at daggers drawn. This case presents one such instance,” said Justice Viswanathan, who authored the April 17 judgment for the Bench also comprising Justice N. Kotiswar Singh.

The court concluded that the manner of protest resorted to by the homebuyers was peaceful and orderly and without using, in any manner, offensive or abusive language.

“It could not be said that the appellants [homebuyers] crossed the Lakshman Rekha and transgressed into the offending zone,” Justice Viswanathan observed.

The apex court found the protest of the homebuyers dwelt within the scope of one of the exceptions to criminal defamation and was protected under the right to free speech and expression enshrined in Article 19 of the Constitution.

Allowing the appeal of the homebuyers, the apex court said the “criminal proceedings levelled against them, if allowed to continue, will be a clear abuse of process”.