The All India Catholic Union (AICU) has welcomed remarks by Supreme Court judge Justice Ujjal Bhuyan on constitutional liberty and the rights of minorities, delivered while he was giving the 4th Justice G.P. Singh Memorial Lecture at the National Law Institute University (NLIU), Bhopal, on 25 July.
In its statement, made available to Christian Today India, AICU said Justice Bhuyan pointed out that no law bars eating chicken on the banks of the Ganga, and that jailing young men for months over a chicken biryani meal shared while breaking their Ramadan fast “cannot be sustained in law.”
The remarks referred to the arrest of 14 Muslim youths by the Varanasi police in March, after a video of them holding an Iftar gathering on a boat on the Ganga went viral on social media. They were accused of consuming chicken biryani and discarding food waste into the river, and booked under charges including outraging religious feelings and public nuisance, besides pollution law. The Allahabad High Court granted them bail in May, more than two months after their arrest.
At the lecture, Justice Bhuyan said, “I am sure consuming chicken biryani is not an offence,” while questioning the basis for the prolonged detention.
AICU argued that this episode, citizens locked up for three months over conduct that amounted to no offence, points to a wider pattern of treating the everyday lives of minority citizens as criminal. It said Muslims and Christians have faced the sharpest edge of this pattern under BJP governments in Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
The statement also referred to Justice Bhuyan’s remarks on peaceful protest, which he described as “the essence of democracy.” AICU said the judge raised concern over the narrowing room for dissent, criticised the branding of students and environmental activists as criminals, and cautioned that harsh bail conditions and delays in granting it could deter people from asserting their basic freedoms.
The 107 year old body said it has repeatedly warned that the Centre and several state governments have, in recent years, “allowed or encouraged an atmosphere of minority-phobia and majoritarian pressure that targets religious minorities through selective enforcement, vigilante intimidation, and the misuse of criminal law and police.”
AICU also pointed to what it called the sustained prosecution and extended jailing of students, youth and workers pressing demands on education, employment, the environment and social justice. It said campus protests draw suspension and arrest, labourers pushing for better pay are booked for causing disruption, and minority citizens end up in criminal cases over basic cultural and religious practices. It named the Rapid Action Force’s use of pellet guns against a students’ and youth protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, and cited crackdowns on agitators in Assam, Bengal and Bihar.
“A constitutional democracy cannot survive if the State treats disagreement as disloyalty and ordinary acts of citizenship as threats to public order,” the statement said, adding that the Constitution guarantees liberty of thought, expression and peaceful assembly, and that these are “not privileges to be withdrawn when inconvenient” but the foundation of the Republic.
AICU said the judiciary’s role in protecting fundamental rights is critical, calling Justice Bhuyan’s remarks “a welcome exercise of that role.” It contrasted this with recent comments from the Chief Justice that it described as deeply disconcerting, and said it hoped the higher judiciary would “speak as plainly as Justice Bhuyan has.”
The statement was released to the media, including Christian Today India, by AICU official spokesman Dr. John Dayal.
