Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant today warned that advocacy cannot become performance and be used only for personal gain. He called upon graduating law students to view the legal profession as a public responsibility in a democracy still in the making, and urged them to ensure that the law remained accessible, responsive, and rooted in social realities.
At the Eighteenth Convocation Ceremony of National Law University (NLU), Jodhpur on February 21, 2026, the Chief Justice of India urged graduating law students to ensure that the legal system becomes more accessible and understandable, cautioning against allowing law to become an exclusive domain guarded by complexity of the system.
In his convocation address at the National Law University (NLU), Jodhpur, the CJI said,“When lawyers prioritise spectacle over substance, complexity over clarity, or convenience over conscience, they rebuild the very fortress mentality that democracy sought to transcend." CJI spoke on the theme "From Fortress to Forum: Law in an Unfinished Republic," emphasising that the legal system must evolve with society rather than remain shielded by complexity or privilege.
Drawing inspiration from the imposing Mehrangarh Fort of Jodhpur as a symbol of law's early purpose, which was to defend society from arbitrariness and disorder, he said that in a constitutional democracy, law cannot remain a defensive structure alone.
CJI underscored that in a constitutional democracy, law must behave less like a closed structure and more like a forum that stays open to participation and reason.
He flagged that the threat to openness can creep in through language “wrapped in complexity, guarded by jargon, accessible only to those who can afford its language.”“In every generation, there is a risk that the law, having once liberated, may begin to distance itself again,” he added.Thus, the CJI reminded the law students that their task is "not to make law more arcane, but more intelligible"
CJI also told the students that law is not merely a career ladder or a market commodity.“The law is not private capital to be leveraged for personal gain. It is a public trust,” he said, adding that the credibility of courts depends as much on the Bar as on the Bench.
Follow us
