'Brilliant, Bold, Brave': Top Court Judge Praises NALSAR Students Weeks After Convocation Row

Students of the NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, got fulsome praise from Justice Ujjal Bhuyan of the Supreme Court on Sunday, as he called them "brilliant, bold and brave".

"Before I wind up, one last word about the brilliant students of NALSAR. You have shown to the country and to the world what a university student, that too a student of law, should be. You are brilliant; you are bold; and you are brave," Justice Bhuyan said.

He was delivering the valedictory address at the 19th NALSAR-Justice BR Sawhney Memorial Moot Court Competition.

The praise comes just weeks after the graduating batch of NALSAR faced a threat from the Bar Council of India (BCI) over a protest against Chief Justice of India Surya Kant's proposed participation in its convocation.

Justice Bhuyan did not refer to the controversy in his address.

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He also praised the university's faculty and its vice-chancellor, Srikrishna Deva Rao.

"To the faculty members, you have performed your duties admirably; you have done what a university teacher is expected to do...The vice-chancellor should also not be left out. It was during my tenure as the chancellor that Professor (Srikrishna Deva) Rao was appointed as the vice-chancellor. I must say that he has led the university admirably. He has not let the teachers and the students down," he said. Justice Bhuyan served as NALSAR's ex-officio chancellor during his tenure as Chief Justice of the Telangana High Court in 2022-23.

In August, a section of NALSAR's graduating batch objected to the proposed invitation to CJI Surya Kant as chief guest at the convocation, reportedly over the CJI's remarks during court proceedings concerning alleged police excesses against protesters in Delhi. Then, BCI chairman Manan Kumar Mishra directed state bar councils not to enrol any graduate from NALSAR's 2026 batch until further orders. He also directed Rao to submit a report identifying students, faculty members, research scholars, alumni and others allegedly involved in organising the campaign.

Rao said the university would examine the legality of the BCI's directions and place the matter before its Executive Council before proceeding with any inquiry.

The BCI withdrew the enrolment bar hours after it was issued, and Mishra later announced that all proceedings against the batch had been dropped.

On August 14, the Supreme Court directed that no punitive action be taken against NALSAR students or faculty members in connection with the campaign. It also held later that the BCI had no statutory authority to take disciplinary action against law students and declared its communications concerning the NALSAR graduates to be without authority of law.

Justice Bhuyan's remarks on the students came at the close of an address on the right to vote, in which he said any process disenfranchising millions of citizens was "intrinsically arbitrary" and that "no court can condone it".

He did not name any specific exercise or authority in his address.

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The remarks come four months after the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the Election Commission of India's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Recent weeks have seen fresh questions by Opposition parties over the EC's autonomy and intention.

Shortly before turning to the students, he quoted jurist Nani Palkhivala: "Freedom cannot be inherited in the bloodstream. Each generation will have to defend it and fight for it. Then alone will it survive, to be passed on to the next."