Are commercial advertisements a part of freedom of speech and expression?

In Hamdard Dawakhana v. Union of India the Supreme Court stated that an advertisement, no doubt, is a form of speech, but its true character is to be determined by the object which it seeks to promote. It may amount to an expression of ideas and propagation of human thought and, thus, would fall within the scope of Article 19 (1) (a). But a commercial advertisement having an element of trade and commerce and promoting business has an element of trade and commerce, and it no longer falls within the concept of freedom of speech for its object is not to propagate any ideas- social, political or economic or to further literature or human thought.


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