CJI Surya Kant stood before a packed auditorium at Chanakya National Law University, declaring the judiciary will not turn a blind eye to police repression of student rallies. He emphasized that courts will "protect students’ fundamental right to hold peaceful protests".
The chief justice answered a question from an unnamed female student about police responses to campus demonstrations, echoing concerns that law‑enforcement tactics had become increasingly hostile. A follow‑up query about why dissenting collegium opinions remain undisclosed was met with a warning that transparency can endanger personal dignity.
Students recalled the Jantar Mantar protests in Delhi, where the Cockroach Janata Party staged a satirical online campaign against a remark the CJI had made in the Supreme Court, later claiming it was taken out of context. That episode had already stoked doubts about the judiciary’s impartiality in student‑rights cases.
The CJI also lauded a proposal by Vice‑Chancellor Faizan Mustafa to compress the five‑year law degree into four years, coupled with a mandatory court apprenticeship in the final year, which could eliminate the separate one‑year practice requirement for judicial service exams.
V. Kameswar Rao, Patna High Court chief justice and university chancellor, accompanied the CJI, underscoring the event’s significance amid recent opposition to the chief justice from NALSAR in Hyderabad and NLSIU in Bangalore.
The judiciary’s pledge is expected to prompt the Supreme Court to issue guidelines on police conduct during campus protests, a move that could reshape the legal landscape for student activism across the country.