Supreme Court of India

Pepole's Union for Civil Liberties and Anr. v. Union of India and Ors.

Neutral citation

Reported as [2004] 1 S.C.R. 232

Bench V.N. Khare and S.B. Sinha JJ.

Decided 6 January 2004

INSC stands for INDIAN SUPREME COURT. A neutral citation scheme assigned by the Court itself, so a judgment can be cited without depending on a commercial law reporter. INSC is the neutral citation scheme assigned by the Supreme Court, so a judgment can be cited without depending on a commercial law reporter.

6 Supreme Court benches have cited this judgment.

What the Court ordered

We are of the opinion that it is not a fit case where this Court should exercise its discretionary jurisdiction under Article 136 of the Constitution of India.

Judgment, page 33

From the headnote

Atomic Energy Act, 1962: Section 18-Restriction-On disclosure of information-Power a/Central Government-Held: Central Government empowered to restrict disclosure of certain information to the public-Such power neither uncontrolled nor unguided. Constitution of India, 1950: Article 19(1) (g). Right of information-Nature of-Held: ls a facet of 'speech and e'Cpression' and therefore, a fundamental right. Right of information-Reasonable restriction on-Imposed by S. 18 of the Atomic Energy Act, 1962-Permissibility of-Held: The Act dealt with a restrictive subject-Hence, prohibition of disclosure

Authorities it was built on

1959 Hamdard Dawakhana (wakf) Lal Kuan, Delhi and Another v. Union of India and Others cited by 25

Where later benches applied it

2025 K. Prabhakar Hegde v. Bank of Baroda relied on
2011 Chief Information Commr. and Another v. State of Manipur and Another relied on
2024 Fuleshwar Gope v. Union of India & Ors. referred to
2021 Rajeev Suri v. Delhi Development Authority & Ors referred to
2018 Aseer Jamal v. Union of India & Ors. referred to
2011 Central Board of Secondary Education & Anr. v. Aditya Bandopadhyay & Ors. referred to

Of those, 2 relied on · 4 referred to

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