Court caseAIR 1951 SC 118

The C.P. and Berar Regulation of Manufacture of Bidis (Agricultural Purposes) Act 1948 empowered the Deputy Commissioner to fix an agricultural season and to prohibit, in notified villages, the manufacture of bidis during that season, so that labour would be available for agriculture. Chintaman Rao, a bidi manufacturer in Sagar district, challenged an order prohibiting manufacture as violating his right to carry on business under Article 19(1)(g).

Mahajan J held the Act void. The phrase 'reasonable restriction' connotes that the limitation imposed on a person in enjoyment of the right should not be arbitrary or of an excessive nature, beyond what is required in the interests of the public. Legislation which arbitrarily or excessively invades the right cannot be said to contain the quality of reasonableness, and unless it strikes a proper balance between the freedom guaranteed and the social control permitted by clause (6), it must be held wanting. The Act prohibited bidi-making even by old people, women, children and the infirm who could not work in the fields, and barred the manufacturer from employing labour from outside the village; its effect went far beyond its object and amounted to a total prohibition, not a restriction.