Justice Ujjal Bhuyan Calls Out Registration Of Frivolous Cases Over Consuming Food, Raising Slogans

Supreme Court judge Justice Ujjal Bhuyan has expressed his concerns over frivolous criminal cases clogging India's justice system.

Justice Bhuyan referred to his recent address wherein he had spoken about registration of frivolous criminal cases in the country over extremely frivolous reasons like consuming particular kind of food or for reciting poems.

"In fact, one of our judgments is on the recitation of a poem in Gujarat. He spoke about peace. The police registered a case saying that he is trying to provoke enmity between different sections of the society. Raising slogans that A and B or A or B should be granted bail. For that also they are arrested, denied bail, participating in demonstrations, for commenting on social media, performing as a stand-up comedian, sometimes contents of films and books, the titles given there too. So we have all kinds of people at a drop of a hat their sentiments are hurt and they file this type of cases. The accusations are ridiculous and often borders on an affront to one's intelligence. Nonetheless, registration of such criminal cases continues unabated. Not only that in some cases charge sheet are also filed leading to trial knowing fully well what would be the outcome of such cases," Justice Bhuyan has said.

Justice Bhuyan also cited some pendency figures. According to the National Judicial Data Grid, as on September 17, a total of 4.27 crore criminal cases are pending across all courts in India, he said. Of these, 4.07 crore or 95.31 percent are before the trial courts, 19.84 lakh or 4.64 percent before the High Courts and 22,143 before the Supreme Court, the judge added.

The Supreme Court judge was speaking on the topic 'Ethics in Criminal Litigation and the Duties of the Defence and the Prosecution' at 4th Discourse organised by the Centre for Discourses on Criminal and Constitutional Jurisprudence at the India International Centre in New Delhi.

"When you have so many cases clogging the court system with the system unable to cope with it as if almost bursting at the seams. Superimposition of such frivolous cases has only added to the unworkable burden on the trial courts. There are 22,000 trial court judges. There are approximately 700 odd high court judges. Most of them they work particularly the trial court judges, they work under very trying condition, " Justice Bhuyan added.

Using the arrest of eight men in the Varanasi Iftar Chicken Biryani case in March this year as a significant illustration, Justice Bhuyan In July had raised concerns over the shrinking space for democratic dissent, asking whether courts were "indirectly telling" citizens or discouraging them from expressing dissent.

Referring to the Varanasi iftar case, Justice Bhuyan recalled that a group of ‘youngsters’ had been arrested after breaking their fast by consuming chicken biryani on the banks of the Ganga. Questioning both the arrests and the prolonged incarceration that followed, he remarked: "I'm sure consuming chicken biryani is not an offence. Can't be an offence. There's no law prohibiting consumption of chicken over the Ganga River. They were arrested for that very reason and they had to remain in jail for three months. Three months. Can you imagine?"

Justice Bhuyan recently had also shared that it was " very, very distressing" to see police officers assaulting protestors at Jantar Mantar in July and "a matter of grave concern". The Supreme Court judge reportedly made the remarks at the launch of "Policing the Republic", a book by former secretary (security) Yashovardhan Azad. "All of us are dismayed when we see young police officers personally going and assaulting protesters and demonstrators. This is something very, very distressing to observe. The detachment expected of police officers somehow seems to be disappearing, and this is indeed a matter of grave concern," Justice Bhuyan said.