CJI Kant says he never consented to Nalsar's invitation amid student protest row

NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant has not accepted the invitation to be chief guest at the convocation of National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (Nalsar) University of Law amid a row sparked by a section of students opposing his presence at the event which snowballed after Bar Council of India jumped in and ordered blackballing of the graduates before retracting with regret.

Hours after addressing VCs of national law universities at Jodhpur, CJI Kant told TOI he "never consented to Nalsar's invitation" to be chief guest at the convocation. "The question of me attending the convocation does not arise," CJI said.

Four days ago, Nalsar confirmed it had, in keeping with tradition, invited CJI Kant to be chief guest at the ceremony that is likely to be held at the end of Aug or in Sept. Of Nalsar's 1,400-odd students, more than 400 had opposed CJI Kant as chief guest, citing his remarks during a hearing on petitions related to the students' march to Parliament on July 20 and alleged police excesses.

The CJI-led bench is seized of a bunch of petitions seeking independent inquiry into the alleged police excesses on students, use of pellet guns and facial recognition devices for profiling students in alleged breach of right to privacy. It has also accepted a petition by the relatives of injured police personnel seeking strict action against "criminal elements" who infiltrated the students' agitation and caused widespread violence and damage to public property while abusing PM and other constitutional functionaries.

The students appeared to have taken umbrage at the CJI-led bench declining to take suo motu cognisance of the alleged police excesses against protesters when an advocate, without filing a proper petition, made the request on July 22, claiming he had video footage of the same. The CJI had asked him to file a proper petition articulating his allegations. However, when the advocate, without producing a scrap of a paper, persisted with his request that the bench watch the videos, the CJI, with a heavy cache of cases already before him, had asked him not to waste judicial time and suggested he file a proper petition.

Petitions raising similar concerns were subsequently filed and entertained by the CJI-led bench, which had asked police not to take any coercive action against students and preserve all video and CCTV camera footage as well as sought suggestions for an independent inquiry into the incident and setting up a commission to lay down pan-India guidelines for graded action by police to control protests turning violent.

The controversy over students' opposition to the invite to CJI snowballed after BCI chairperson, Manan Kumar Mishra, unilaterally issued a letter to the Nalsar vice-chancellor seeking an inquiry and identification of students who opposed the CJI's presence at the convocation and threatened to debar them from getting registered as advocates. Faced with condemnation, BCI quickly withdrew the circular. SC has sought its response while observing that the regulator had no business wading into a matter which concerned CJI and Nalsar students.