At his factory in Raigarh, then part of Madhya Pradesh, Naveen Jindal began flying the Indian Tricolour from his office premises in the early 1990s.

It was a simple expression of pride, one he had grown accustomed to while studying in the United States. But in September 1994, the divisional commissioner of Bilaspur noticed the flag during a visit and objected.

Under the Flag Code then in force, private citizens were generally allowed unrestricted display of the National Flag only on specified occasions. Jindal was warned that continuing to fly it could invite action.

The Flag Code, however, was not an Act passed by Parliament. It consisted of executive instructions governing when and how the National Flag could be displayed.

Jindal found the restriction difficult to accept.

Years earlier, while studying abroad and serving as president of a university student senate in the United States, he had flown the Indian flag with pride among a sea of unfamiliar symbols.

Returning home, he found it hard to accept that the same flag could not fly freely over his own soil, on his own building.

He sought legal advice, including from senior advocate Shanti Bhushan. 

He was advised that two parliamentary laws directly regulated the use of the National Flag. The Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950, restricted its commercial misuse, while the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, penalised acts of disrespect.

The Flag Code itself, his lawyers argued, did not have the force of legislation and could not independently take away a citizen’s constitutional freedom of expression.

Jindal then filed a writ........

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