J.S Mill views on Liberty — Influence on Indian Constitution

Article 19(2) of the Constitution lets the State restrict your free speech, but only for specific, listed reasons — not simply because your speech offends someone. That structure, restriction only for a defined harm, not for mere disapproval, is a direct descendant of one nineteenth-century essay: J. S. Mill's argument for liberty.

In two minutes

J. S. Mill argued that individual liberty should be restricted only to prevent harm to others (the harm principle), never merely because the majority disapproves of a person's self-regarding conduct, and this reasoning has directly shaped how Fundamental Rights in the Indian Constitution are structured and restricted.

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