New Delhi, April 18 -- The Supreme Court on Thursday held that homebuyers have a right to raise their genuine grievances against builders by organising peaceful protests and putting up banners to espouse their grievances in a language that is not rude or abusive as it quashed a defamation case initiated by a Mumbai-based developer to silence homebuyers who resorted to this unique form of protest to showcause defaults in constructions of their housing project in Borivali.

A bench headed by justice KV Viswanathan said that just as developers have a right of commercial speech to advertise their flats, the homebuyers have a constitutional right to vent their grievances through peaceful protest, especially when their actions are within the 'L...