Chief Justice of India N V Ramana on Thursday expressed concern over diminishing students' activities in social causes after liberalisation, saying in the past few decades no big leader has emerged from the students' community.
“Any keen observer of Indian society would notice that in the past few decades no big leader has emerged from the student community. This appears to be correlated with diminished participation of students in social causes after liberalisation. The importance of students’ participation in modern democracy cannot be played down," he said.
The CJI was speaking at the eighth convocation at National Law University, Delhi.
He said students cannot remain self-centred and it is essential that more and more well-meaning, forward-looking, and upright students enter public life.
“You must emerge as leaders. After all, political consciousness and well-informed debates can steer the nation into a glorious future as envisioned by our Constitution. A responsive youth is vital for strengthening democracy," Justice Ramana told the students and faculty members.
He said students are an integral part of the society and cannot live in isolation, and they are also guardians of freedom, justice, equality, ethics, and social equilibrium.
Voicing his concern, he pointed out unfortunately, the focus nowadays is on professional courses to the total neglect of equally important subjects such as humanities and natural sciences.
In anxiety to secure highly remunerative and profitable job opportunities, children are sent to exile in privately run residential schools and coaching centres, he said.
“The formative years of budding talents are spent in a suffocating atmosphere which unfortunately resembles prisons," he said.
He said holistic development of a child cannot be achieved in such a restrictive environment and the harsh reality is that even after the students enter professional universities, the focus is on classroom learning, and not on the world beyond the classroom.
Highlighting the fact that the primary object behind the establishment of national law universities in the country was to improve the quality of legal education in the country to produce better trained legal professionals, he said, however, no authoritative study has been conducted to determine whether this has taken place.
Additionally, due to various considerations, most students from these universities end up in corporate law firms, he added.
"It is unfortunate that a comparable addition is not being made to the ranks of lawyers practising in Courts from the National Law Universities. This is perhaps one of the reasons why National Law Universities are perceived as elitist and detached from social realities,” he pointed out.
He stressed at enrichment of courtroom advocacy as the need of the hour.
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