The Secretary, Ministry Of ... vs Cricket Association Of Bengal & ... on 9 February, 1995 cised from the section the remaining portion would be unintelligible and could not be upheld. 11. In Sakal Papers [P] Ltd. & Ors.. v. The Union of India [(1962)] 3 SCR 842] what fell for consideration was the Newspaper [Price and age] Act, 1956 which empowered the Central Government to regulate the prices of newspapers in relation to their pages and size and also to regulate the allocation of space for advertising matters and the Central Government order made under the said Act, viz., the Daily Newspaper [Price and Page] Order, 1960 which fixed the maximum number of pages that might be published by the newspaper according to the price charged and prescribing the nature of supplements that could be issued. The Court held that the Act and the Order were void being violative of Article 19 [1] (a) of the Constitution. They were also not saved by Article 19 [2]. The Court asserted that the free- dom of speech and expression guaranteed by Article 19 [1] (a) included the freedom of the press. For propagating his ideas a citizen had the right to publish them, to disseminate them and to circulate them, either by word or mouth or by writing. The right extended not merely to the matter which he was entitled to circulate but also to the volume of circulation. Although the impugned Act and the Order placed restraints on the volume of circulation, their very object was directed against circulation. Thus both interfered with the freedom of speech and expression. The Court held that Article 19 [2] did not permit the State to abridge the said right in the interest of general public. The Court also held that the State could not make a law which directly restricted one guaranteed freedom for securing the better enjoyment of another freedom. Freedom of speech could not be restricted for the purpose of regu- lating the commercial aspect of the activities of newspapers. In this connection, the following observations of the Court are relevant: "Its object thus is to regulate something which, as already stated, is directly related to the circulation of a newspaper. Since circulation of a newspaper is a part of the right of freedom of speech the Act must be regarded as one directed against the freedom of speech. It has selected the fact or thing which is an essential and basic attribute of the conception of the freedom of speech, viz., the right to circulate one's views to all whom one can reach or care to reach for the imposition of a restriction. It seeks to achieve its object of enabling what are termed the smaller newspapers to secure larger cir- culation by provisions which without disguise are aimed at restricting the circulation of what are termed the larger papers with better financial strength. The impugned law far from being one, which merely interferes with the right of freedom of speech incidentally, does so directly though it seeks to achieve the end by purporting to regulate the business aspect of a newspaper. Such a course is not permissible and the courts must be ever vigilant in guarding perhaps the most precious of all the freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution. The reason for this is obvious. The freedom of speech and expression of opinion is of paramount importance under a democratic Constitution which envisages changes in the composition of legislatures and governments and must be preserved. No doubt, the law in question was made upon the rec- ommendation of the Press Commission but since its object is to affect directly the right of circulation of newspapers which would Indian Kanoon - http://indiankanoon.org/doc/539407/ 6