New Delhi, Nov 5 Supreme Court judge Justice Ujjal Bhuyan has been making "no holds barred" comments on several issues including voting rights of citizens, judicial appointments, the working of the SC Collegium, the right to dissent and constitutional morality during recent public lectures and academic convocations.
Justice Bhuyan, who was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court on July 14, 2023, delivered a significant judgment on Thursday which said that the 24-hour arrest deadline begins from detention and not formal arrest.
He has been continuously speaking on contentious issues at legal and academic forums, especially weekend memorial lectures spanning across the country, for the past few months.
Justice Bhuyan's remarks also sparked a major debate regarding judicial propriety and commenting on a sub judice matter.
The top court judge, who was born on August 2, 1964 in Guwahati, belongs to a family from the legal background, with his father, Suchendra Nath Bhuyan, being a senior advocate and a former advocate general of Assam.
Justice Bhuyan did his schooling at Don Bosco High School, Guwahati and thereafter studied at Cotton College, Guwahati.
After graduating in Arts from Kirori Mal College, Delhi, Justice Bhuyan obtained his LL.B. degree from Government Law College, Guwahati and LL.M. degree from Gauhati University, Guwahati.
At the 19th NALSAR-Justice BR Sawhney Memorial Moot Court Competition held on October 4, Justice Bhuyan said the process of "disenfranchising millions and millions of Indian citizens, making them second-class citizens in their own country, in the sense of being citizens without voting rights, such a process is intrinsically arbitrary. No amount of whataboutery can justify it."
Addressing the 12th convocation ceremony of the University of Science and Technology Meghalaya on October 31, he said, "A society that fears questions becomes vulnerable to authoritarianism."
He also remarked on the "male-dominated" top court and said the strength of women in the court "does not reflect the real proportion of women lawyers or women in the country".
The apex court judge also spoke without inhibition on the Collegium and appointments in the judiciary.
While speaking at ILS Law College in Pune on January 24, Justice Bhuyan said, "When the Collegium itself records that a transfer is being made at the request of the central government, it reveals a striking intrusion."
The remarks had come three months after the Supreme Court Collegium changed its recommendation to transfer Justice Atul Sreedharan from the Madhya Pradesh High Court to the Chhattisgarh High Court, instead of shifting him to the Allahabad High Court.
On judicial appointments, Justice Bhuyan, while speaking at the launch of the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy's Judicial Transparency Index Report, said the Collegium not giving reasons for its decisions was "a step back from the principle of transparency".
"By not giving reasons, the institution actually does a disservice to many judges who are genuinely outstanding and have done tremendous work… By withholding reasons, we also create space for individuals to enter the judiciary who may later describe groups of people as 'ants' and make other remarks that are wholly unconstitutional and contrary to the values of the Constitution," he had said.
Expressing his views on criminal law and dissent, Justice Bhuyan also spoke at National Law Institute University, Bhopal, in which he voiced his opinion about an incident in which 14 Muslim youths were arrested in Varanasi for consuming chicken biryani on a boat on the Ganga river.
"I am sure consuming chicken biryani is not an offence. It can't be an offence… They were arrested for that very reason and they had to remain in jail for three months," he said.
At a seminar in February, Justice Bhuyan spoke about the gap between constitutional guarantees and everyday discrimination, and shared an incident.
He disclosed that his daughter's Muslim friend was denied accommodation in Delhi because of her religion.
Justice Bhuyan was appointed as Additional Judge of Gauhati High Court on October 17, 2011 and confirmed on March 20, 2013.
He was transferred to Bombay High Court and took the oath as a judge of the Bombay High Court on October 3, 2019.
After a two-year stint in Mumbai, Justice Bhuyan was transferred to the Telangana High Court and took the oath as a judge of the Telangana High Court on October 22, 2021.
On July 5, 2023, the Supreme Court Collegium recommended his appointment as a judge of the apex court.
Justice Bhuyan will retire on August 1, 2029 and he is not in line to become the Chief Justice of India.
