Bengaluru, March 23 -- Supreme Court judge justice Ujjal Bhuyan on Sunday said that incarceration of citizens for dissent, and continuing atrocities against Dalits "cannot be a model of Viksit Bharat". Speaking at the Supreme Court Bar Association's (SCBA) conference in Bengaluru on the judiciary's role in Viksit Bharat, justice Bhuyan said, "While the government's vision of Viksit Bharat, or, a developed India by 2047 is laudable and achievable, economic growth cannot come at the cost of civil liberties and dignity." "In Viksit Bharat, there should be more space for dissent and debate. Dissent cannot be criminalised," he said, warning against the growing tendency to invoke criminal law in response to protests, student movements, and even social media expression. He said the past few years have seen a pattern of "reckless registration" of criminal cases by the State, often in trivial matters. FIRs routinely filed for public demonstrations or online content, pushing individuals into prolonged investigations and incarceration, he said. "The judiciary is not directing the State to register these cases. For trivial matters such as public demonstrations and agitations, even by students, sometimes even for memes and social media posts, FIRs are registered, investigation goes on, the matters come up to the Supreme Court. And the Supreme Court has to constitute special investigation teams," the judge said. He, however, acknowledged that courts have not always acted as an effective check and said, "Many within the judiciary also suffer from the more loyal than the king syndrome. As a result, people continue to languish in jails for months and months together without bail and without facing trial." Justice Bhuyan invoked the long-standing principle articulated by justice VR Krishna Iyer that "bail is the norm and jail the exception." He said this doctrine has steadily eroded in practice and several cases under the stringent UAPA were prime examples. On atrocities against Dalits and caste-based discrimination, justice Bhuyan said a developed India cannot tolerate entrenched social hierarchies. "In Viksit Bharat, we cannot have parents saying their children will not eat food prepared by Dalits. We cannot have Dalit men being made to stand in corridors and have other men urinate on them. Respect for the individual must be protected," he said....