Justice Ujjal Bhuyan seeks transparency in collegium appointments

Supreme Court judge Ujjal Bhuyan questioned the collegium's recent practice of not giving reasons for judicial appointments, saying greater transparency is needed to ensure deserving candidates are elevated and to prevent individuals with unconstitutional views from entering the judiciary

New Delhi: Criticising the collegium for not giving reasons for judicial appointments, Supreme Court judge Ujjal Bhuyan on Saturday said the failure to do so allows space for judges who make unconstitutional remarks, such as describing “groups of people as ants”.

“I have noticed that the last three collegium resolutions contain no reasons whatsoever. Is this a step back from the principle of transparency?” Justice Bhuyan said.

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Speaking at a panel discussion during the launch of a report by legal think tank Vidhi’s JALDI initiative, Justice Bhuyan stressed that not disclosing reasons for elevation allows undesirable candidates to enter the judiciary.

“By not giving reasons, the institution actually does a disservice to many judges who are genuinely outstanding and have done tremendous work.

“Conversely, 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,” Justice Bhuyan said.

To prevent the entry of such people, “there should be some discussion, there should be some reasons given”, he said.

Justice Bhuyan said that recently a high court judge had made such remarks.

Though Justice Bhuyan did not name any individual, a former Allahabad High Court judge had sparked a furore with his remarks at a VHP event in 2024, with Opposition leaders calling for action against him over his “hate speech”.

“In our country, we are taught not to harm even the smallest animals, not to kill ants, and this lesson is ingrained in us. Perhaps that is why we are tolerant and compassionate; we feel pain when others suffer. But in your culture, from a young age, children are exposed to the slaughter of animals. How can you expect them to be tolerant and compassionate?” the HC judge had said.

Justice Bhuyan said the last three statements of the Supreme Court collegium did not contain any reasons for recommending the elevation of judges.

“Some may even say they were somewhat formulaic or copy-paste in nature. But at least some reasons were given to justify the recommendations,” he said.

In recent months, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant sparked controversy by describing certain people as “cockroaches”, which spawned an online movement, Cockroach Janta Party, that spearheaded the agitation over the NEET paper leak issue.

While referring to criticism of the collegium system, the CJI had in the past said that when the collegium recommends names for elevation to the apex court, various factors, including performance, length of service already rendered as judges, positions held in the past and even professional life, are taken into consideration.