Justice Chandrachud: Being tolerant doesn’t mean blind conformity

“Stepping into the world as fresh graduates, amid the increasing noise and confusion, of political, social and moral clashes of ideology, you must be guided by the thought of your own conscience, and equitable reason. Speak truth to power. Maintain your composure in the face of unspeakable social injustices and utilise your good fortune and privilege to remedy them,” he said in the pre-recorded video message.

Justice Chandrachud emphasised that law must not be confused with justice and also pointed out that the students, over the course of their career, would often realise that “what is legal is probably unjust, whereas what is just may not always be legal.”

Citing several examples, including the striking down of Section 377, lack of child labour lgislations for the longest time, and minimum wages being a result of recent labour movements across the world, he said, “All these issues existed simultaneously with the institutions of law. However, we now agree that they were unjust. There continue to be laws as well as lack of regulations, which push the marginalised, deeper into the pockets of marginalisation.”

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It is also important to look for ways in which laws can be reimagined and redefined to make them better and more just, he added.  “At all junctures where you do have the opportunity of working towards social justice, and furthering rights in small and big ways, you must remember the importance of differentiating between law and justice and (using) the law as a step to advance justice… the journey to justice does not stop at a midpoint, or where we feel that we are being less unjust than the others,” he said at the 11th convocation of the GNLU where 247 students received  degrees for UG, postgraduate, doctoral and MBA programmes.