Many Within Judiciary Suffer From 'Loyal than the King Syndrome', Deny Bail Even in Deserving Cases, Says SC Judge

New Delhi: Justice Ujjal Bhuyan of the Supreme Court on Sunday (March 22) said that some judges follow the "more loyal than the king" approach and deny bail in even those cases which are deserving of being granted bail. This approach of the judges results in prolonged incarceration of individuals, said Justice Bhuyan, reported LiveLaw.

Bhuyan made the comments while speaking at the 1st Supreme Court Bar Association National Conference' 2026 on the topic "The Role of Judiciary in Viksit Bharat" on Sunday.

“I must admit, many within the judiciary continue to suffer from the more loyal than the king syndrome. As a result, people continue to languish in jails for months and months together," said Justice Bhuyan.

He also added that there is an increasing trend of reckless registration of FIRs for trivial matters.

“We have noticed that there is reckless registration of criminal cases, FIRs, in recent times. Judiciary has not directed their registration. For trivial matters, such as public demonstrations, agitations, even by students, sometimes even for putting up memes and social media posts, FIRs are registered, and investigations go on. Matters come up to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has to constitute Special Investigation Teams. This consumes sufficient judicial time," said Justice Bhuyan, reported LiveLaw.

He also spoke about the overuse of statutes such as the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

Citing data as of March 31, 2025, Justice Bhuyan said that there were 7,771 Enforcement Case Information Reports (ECIR) filed and 1,031 people arrested. But trial concluded in only 47 cases.

"How do you justify keeping them in jail for months and years together when the maximum sentence is 7 years?" asked Justice Bhuyan.

Justice Bhuyan termed the UAPA as “another draconian law”. He cited information furnished by the Ministry of Home Affairs to the Lok Sabha which revealed that in 2019, 1,984 arrests were made, and only 34 were convicted. The conviction rate was 1.74%. In 2020, 1,321 were arrested and only 80 were convicted. The conviction rate was 6%. In 2021, 1,621 were arrested and only 62 were convicted. The conviction rate is about 3%. In 2022, 2,636 were arrested and only 41 got convicted. The rate of conviction is about 1.5%. In 2023, 2,941 were arrested and 118 were convicted. The conviction rate is about 4%.

Justice Bhuyan said that the data shows that the conviction rate has been consistently as low as around 4%.

"What does it indicate? It may indicate overuse, I won't say misuse. How much weight courts have to take due to this. This shows that vast majority of persons arrested were not convicted, indicating that many arrests may have been premature and unsupported by sufficient evidence. This contributed directly to case backlogs and pendency, besides raising fundamental questions of liberty. With the conviction percentage being less than 5% and a chance of acquittal being 95%, the question is, why should an accused be confined to jail for years and years together? 5 years or 6 years without charges being framed, without a chargesheet being filed, can this go on? This can't be a model for Viksit Bharat," said Justice Bhuyan.

"In Viksit Bharat, there should be more space for dissent and debate. Dissent should not be criminalised. There should be more tolerance towards divergent views. There should be more tolerance towards diverse views and criticism," he added.

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