Students and alumni of the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), one of India’s leading law schools, have opposed the invitation to Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Bar Council of India (BCI) Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra to the university’s upcoming convocation ceremony.
In a letter on Saturday, students and alumni of NLSIU said they stood in “unconditional solidarity” with their counterparts at NALSAR and criticised both the BCI chairman’s conduct and the CJI’s proposed participation in their own convocation.
The NLSIU students and alumni have demanded an unconditional apology from the BCI to the NALSAR student and faculty community. The opposition comes days after a major controversy at another premier institution, the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR) University of Law in Hyderabad, where the BCI briefly ordered that students from the 2026 graduating batch should not be enrolled as advocates after some of them objected to Chief Justice Kant being invited as chief guest at their convocation.
The student body said that the issue was not simply about who attends a graduation ceremony but whether students at India’s leading law schools should be free to disagree with powerful institutions and public officials without fearing consequences for their professional futures.
