4 months ago
2
Supreme Court judge, Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, connected Saturday (January 24, 2026) said judges should not beryllium seen oregon perceived arsenic bending implicit backwards to warrant denial of liberty oregon quality rights, informing that “if we suffer our credibility, thing volition beryllium near of the judiciary”.
“Independence of the judiciary is simply a basal diagnostic of our Constitution. It is non-negotiable. It is for the judiciary, oregon alternatively the members of the judiciary, to spot to it that its independency is maintained astatine each costs successful bid to guarantee its continued relevance and legitimacy. If we suffer our credibility, thing volition beryllium near of the judiciary. It volition beryllium there, judges volition beryllium there, courts volition beryllium there, it volition adjudicate, but its bosom and psyche volition person evaporated,” Justice Bhuyan said.
The justice obliquely referred to the Supreme Court Collegium’s determination connected October 14, 2025, to recommend the transportation of past Madhya Pradesh High Court judge, Justice Atul Sreedharan, to the Allahabad High Court alternatively of the Chhattisgarh High Court connected the petition of the government.
The October 14 solution of the apex tribunal Collegium, headed by past Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai, said the alteration of caput was triggered by a “reconsideration sought by the government”.
“When the Collegium itself records successful its minutes that the transportation of a High Court justice is being made astatine the behest of the Central government, it reveals a striking intrusion of enforcement power into what is Constitutionally expected to beryllium an autarkic process created to guarantee that appointments/transfers are immune from enforcement interference… It reflects a wide admittance of the enforcement influencing Collegium determination — the precise happening it (the Collegium system) sought to prevent. That is precise unfortunate,” Justice Bhuyan said successful his code during the Pandit G.V. Pandit Memorial Lecture astatine the ILS Law College, Pune..
He quoted Caroline Kennedy’s “we request judges who basal erect against the governmental whims of the time” to the students, faculty, and dignitaries successful the hall.
Justice Bhuyan explained that judicial transfers were strictly an interior substance of the judiciary. “By the precise quality of things, the Centre tin person nary accidental successful the transportation and posting of judges. It cannot accidental that specified and specified a justice should not oregon should beryllium transferred, oregon if transferred, to specified and specified a High Court,” Justice Bhuyan underscored.
The justice further said it would beryllium a “sad time for the judiciary, and by extension, our democracy, if the determination successful a lawsuit becomes a foregone decision the infinitesimal a lawsuit is listed earlier a peculiar justice oregon a Bench”’.
The apex tribunal justice said courts did not necessitate a “platoon of the CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force)” to support it. Judges were capable to basal defender against intrusions into judicial independence. But if nationalist religion successful the judiciary, which has neither the spot of the sword nor the purse, is breached, “nothing volition beryllium near for the judiciary”.
The Supreme Court justice said judges should not fto their governmental and ideological leanings unreality decisions connected the Bench.
The justice said Constitutional morality was the psyche of governance, keeping antiauthoritarian institutions successful cheque from bulldozing liberty and justness connected the spot of numbers, authority, and power.
Justice Bhuyan recalled the archetypal Chief Justice of India, Harilal J. Kania, exhorting astatine the inaugural league of the Supreme Court that the tribunal indispensable “stand aloof and steadfast from enactment politics. It is unconcerned by the changes successful the government. It has goodwill and sympathy for all, but is allied to none”.
