CJI to law students: ‘World will evaluate you with chambers and salaries… None of this is irrelevant; none is definite either’
Addressing the convocation ceremony at Chanakya National Law University (CNLU) in Patna, the CJI urged students to be lawyers grounded in self-belief and steadfast in the face of challenges.
CJI Surya Kant receives the guard of honour during the foundation stone-laying ceremony of a few administrative buildings and the e-inauguration of Judges’ Guest House in Patna, Saturday. (ANI)
Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Saturday asserted that “empathy” in the legal system distinguished “a just society from an unjust one”, and underscored the need to “bend the arc of justice towards the communities that need it the most”.
Addressing the convocation ceremony at Chanakya National Law University (CNLU) in Patna, the CJI urged students to be lawyers grounded in self-belief and steadfast in the face of challenges. “Your degrees are not symbols of where you come from, they are acknowledgements of what you have already demonstrated the capacity to do,” the CJI said.
The CJI said, “The world will be eager to evaluate you. It will assign you value through designations, rankings, first postings, chambers, salaries and the speed with which you appear to be doing well. None of this is irrelevant but none of it is definite either.”
“Many young lawyers believe that success requires total surrender to work, to guidelines and to expectations, and for a while, intensity is inevitable, but it must not become erasure. If the law occupies every corner of your life, you risk losing the very empathy and judgment that justice requires,” the CJI said.
This very empathy in our legal system is what distinguishes a just society from an unjust one, he observed.
“As you leave this university, remember that the law is not just for those who can afford it, but for anyone who is in dire need of it. You carry a solemn duty to use your skills for people’s benefit. As I often say, the question is not whether you have learnt the law, it is whether you are ready to reshape it, to bend it, also to bend the arc of justice towards the communities that need it the most,” the CJI said.
“… Never lose sight of the fact that law draws its legitimacy from the people it protects. When you use your skills to give voice to the unheard, voiceless, and you also give dignity to those who have been overlooked, you will be honouring not only your own education but the constitutional promise that underpins it,” he added.
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Earlier in the day, the CJI, who was on a two-day visit to Patna, laid the foundation stone for seven key infrastructure projects at Patna HC premises—an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) building, an auditorium, an IT building, an administrative block, a multi-level parking facility, a hospital, a residential block for ministerial staff, and an annexe for the office of the Advocate General.
Himanshu Harsh is a Correspondent with The Indian Express, currently leading on-the-ground coverage in Bihar. With a reporting career rooted in the complexities of the National Capital Region (NCR), Himanshu specializes in the critical intersection of law, crime, and civic governance.
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