Supreme Court of India

Kameshwar Prasad and Others v. The State of Bihar and Another

Neutral citation

Bench P.B. Gajendragadkar, A.K. Sarkar, K.N. Wanchoo, K.C. Das Gupta and N. Rajagopala Ayyangar JJ.

Decided 22 February 1962

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.

4 Supreme Court benches have cited this judgment.

What the Court ordered

We would therefore allow the appeal in part and grant the appellants a declaration that r. 4A in the form in which it now stands prohibiting "any form of demonstration" is violative of the appellants' rights under Art. 19(1)(a) & (b) and should therefore be struck down. It is only necessary to add that the rule, in so far as it prohibits a strike, cannot be struck down since there is no fundamental right to resort to a strike. As the appellants have succeeded only in part, there will be no order as to costs in the appeal.

Judgment, Concluding paragraph, p. 385

From the headnote

Government Servant—Participation in strikes or demonstrations—Rule prohibiting strikes or demonstrations pertaining to conditions of service—Constitutional validity of rule—"Demonstration", meaning of—Bihar Government Servants' Conduct Rules, 1956, r. 4-A—Constitution of India, Arts. 19(1)(a), 19(1)(b), 19(1)(c), 33, 309. By a notification dated August 16, 1957, the Government of Bihar introduced r. 4-A into the Bihar Government Servants' Conduct Rules, 1956, which provided "No Government servant shall participate in any demonstration or resort to any form of strike in connection with any matter pertaining to his conditions of service."…

Authorities it was built on

1957 P. Balakotaiah v. The Union of Indla and Others cited by 18

Where later benches applied it

2015 Shreya Singhal v. Union of India followed
2018 Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan v. The Union of India & Anr. referred to
2016 Sharat Babu Digumarti v. Govt. of Nct of Delhi referred to
2016 Subramanian Swamy v. Union of India, Ministry of Law & Ors. referred to

Of those, 1 followed · 3 referred to

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