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Hyderabad: A section of students at the NALSAR University of Law here have said they stand by their demand that Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant not attend the university’s convocation as chief guest, even as they made it clear they would not boycott the ceremony or press for the invitation to be withdrawn.

“Our demand was not to invite him to the convocation. But since he has already been invited, there is not much we can do. However, we will not withdraw our demand,” a student told The Times of India.

The students have been backed by a section of NALSAR alumni and by members of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), Telangana.

Alumni back students

Alumni members said the students were within their rights to ask the university not to invite the CJI. “It is a justified demand made to their own administration and vice-chancellor. The demand by the students was to reconsider the decision to invite the CJI, which is in line with NALSAR’s norm. It’s their call. It is not disrespectful to the office of the CJI itself,” Akhil Surya, a gold medallist at last year’s convocation and an activist, told TOI.

He added that the NALSAR row should not be seen in isolation, pointing to the cancellation of several events involving the CJI and a similar request made by students of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

Those associated with the CJP protest also said they stood by the students. “Even if I were in the place of NALSAR students, I would not have wanted to take my degree from the current CJI,” Ruchith Asha Kamal, a Hyderabad resident who took part in the CJP protest in Delhi, told TOI.

450 students had signed representations

The office of NALSAR Vice-Chancellor Prof Srikrishna Deva Rao has confirmed the CJI’s participation in the convocation, the dates for which are yet to be decided.

About 450 of the university’s 1,400 students had objected to the invitation, citing the CJI’s remarks in connection with a petition alleging police excesses during protests by NEET aspirants last month. The first representation was submitted on July 23 by 70 members of the outgoing LLB batch, and by July 25 around 380 students from the batches of 2027 to 2031 had submitted separate letters expressing solidarity. A further representation was given to the Vice-Chancellor on August 9.

On July 22, the Supreme Court declined to initiate suo motu proceedings on allegations of police excesses during the July 20 crackdown on student protesters at Jantar Mantar in Delhi. When a lawyer submitted that videographic evidence of the police action was available, the CJI orally declined to examine the footage, remarking that the court’s time should not be wasted.

In their letters, the students said a convocation was meant to be a moment when the university’s own values, including its commitment to constitutional rights and access to justice, were reflected in the choices it made, and that receiving degrees from a dignitary whose recent conduct appeared dismissive of allegations of police brutality sat uncomfortably with what they had been taught at NALSAR.