// BBC WORLD NEWS — MONDO
Why Indian law students don't want top judge at their graduation ceremony
Chief Justice Surya Kant has recently made comments that have angered India's youth
India's top judges often make news for their rulings or pronunciations on weighty matters of law.
But Chief Justice of India Surya Kant has recently made headlines for comments that have angered the youth and, in recent days, prompted students from two premier legal universities to demand that he should not be invited to be the chief guest at their convocations.
The current row started on 23 July when dozens of outgoing students from Nalsar University of Law in the southern city of Hyderabad wrote an email to the college authorities asking that CJI Kant should not be invited to preside over their passing-out ceremony. The demand has since been supported by about 450 of the university's 1,400 students, including many juniors.
The invitation to the chief justice is in keeping with tradition and for aspiring lawyers, the presence of the country's top judge at their convocation is usually seen as a matter of pride.
But Nalsar students were upset over reports that a day earlier, the chief justice had turned down a request to hold urgent hearings on police brutality during the 20 July parliament march led by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) in Delhi. Kant has since said he was misquoted.
In fact, the CJP's birth was also rooted in a remark attributed to the chief justice amid reports that he had used terms like parasites and cockroaches to describe some youth. Kant had said he was misquoted then too.
The crackdown against CJP protesters in the heart of the capital city, where police and paramilitaries were seen attacking and beating up unarmed students who were demanding education reforms with batons, wooden sticks and teargas, had shocked Indians and made global headlines. At least four youths had also sustained pellet gun injuries – in what was described as the first time such guns were used in the capital city for crowd control.
Police and paramilitary personnel were seen attacking and beating up unarmed students in Delhi last month
Indian media reports, external said when a lawyer raised the matter before Kant on 22 July, the chief justice said, "don't waste our time" and when he was asked to watch videos of police excesses, he said "we don't have time".