Supreme Court Justice Ujjal Bhuyan has severely opined on the illegal imprisonment of the Muslim students who were jailed in Uttar Pradesh after allegedly consuming chicken biryani during an iftar function on a boat in the Ganga. Speaking at the 4th Memorial Lecture of Justice GP Singh at the National Law Institute University (NLIU) in Bhopal, Justice Bhuyan remarked that there is no law prohibiting anyone from eating chicken over the Ganga.
Calling the incident to the student’s attention, the judge noted that the students hadn’t done anything wrong and yet spent nearly three months in jail.
“I am certain though that eating chicken biryani isn’t an crime. It can’t be an offence,” Justice Bhuyan said.
In March of this year, the Varanasi Police had registered 14 Muslim youths under several provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), such as ‘outraging religious sentiments’, ‘promoting enmity’, ‘public nuisance’ and violation of the Water Pollution Control Act. Students allegedly dumped garbage and chicken bones in the holy river by the complainants.
Justice Bhuyan was also worried about the rising trend of “criminalisation of peaceful dissent” in India. He said that opposition and counterarguments are integral parts of the democratic process, but when climate activists and students express well-founded concerns, many times they are often treated as criminals.
The judge raised the issue of whether or not the court was giving an indirect signal to citizens not to exercise their democratic rights through the bail conditions. He referenced the Supreme Court’s 2024 decision that redefined ‘bulldozer justice’ but it was ‘two years too late’ for the ruling, he said.
Bhuyan further cautioned that such strict bail conditions that bar public participation and social media posts may seriously abrogate certain fundamental rights in the Constitution.