Attempts by National Law School University of India (NLSIU) alumni to mediate between the Chief Justice of India (CJI) and the graduating batch to organise a convocation have been infructuous so far. On August 27, the institute’s registrar had announced that the convocation which was to be held on September 12 had been cancelled. A meeting of the university’s general council will now likely take a decision on the matter.
The cancellation of the NLSIU convocation was the fallout of developments stemming from Hyderabad NALSAR students objecting to CJI Surya Kant attending their convocation. Bar Council of India (BCI) Manan Kumar Mishra went on to threaten to prevent NALSAR students’ enrollment in the bar.
At the time, NLSIU students, extending solidarity with NALSAR, had objected to the CJI and BCI chief being part of their convocation.
The CJI is the chancellor of NLSIU. The BCI chairperson presides over the general council meetings. The general council is empowered to decide on broad policies and programmes of the NLSIU. In other premier law universities in the country, the chief justices of the respective states’ high courts also serve as the chancellor.
An alumnus who spoke to TNM on condition of anonymity said that after the convocation was cancelled, the CJI had expressed the sentiment that he was in favour of a swift resolution to the issue.
The mediation attempt during the August 29-30 weekend involved conducting another poll seeking the opinion of the graduating batch on whether they were open to issuing a formal statement or whether to have the CJI nominate another judge to attend the convocation in his stead.
Of the 324 students in the graduating batch, 205 participated in the poll. Of these 54% were in favour of nominating another judge while the remaining 45% were in favour of the CJI himself attending the event.
However, the latter option came with a rider that the students would still have to issue a statement—which need not be a retraction of their previous statement expressing solidarity with the NALSAR students—but an acknowledgement that a conversation took place. Effectively, it would be a public invitation to the CJI.
However, after the results of the poll were conveyed to the CJI, the matter of the university administration not being a part of the process was raised. After this, CJI Surya Kant is said to have placed the matter before the general council which will likely take a call.
TNM has reached out to NLSIU Vice Chancellor Sudhir Krishnaswamy regarding this turn of events. The story will be updated if he responds.
Students that TNM reached out to confirmed that mediation attempts were underway, but were reluctant to say more.
Second poll
The poll taken during the last weekend of August was the second such poll in the issue.
On August 15, NLSIU students issued a statement expressing solidarity with NALSAR Hyderabad and expressed their “strong disapproval of the CJI attending the convocation of NLSIU for the same reasons.”
Following a meeting with the CJI who reportedly wanted to understand the issue, the students were asked to vote on whether they would be amenable to the CJI attending a convocation. In the first such poll, most students were open to inviting the CJI.
However, two days later, the students were told that they were required to release a statement publicly inviting the CJI to their convocation. This led to a split of opinion among students, and the convocation was then cancelled as some students objected to issuing such a statement as it would mean a retraction of their statement expressing solidarity with NALSAR students.
These developments drew criticism from the legal fraternity and the public and sparked attempts by the alumni to mediate a solution that would allow for a convocation for the graduating students.