Courts are the Nations Conscience Keepers: Justice Jasti Chelameswar

KOCHI:
‘The Courts are the nations conscience keepers’ said Justice Jasti Chelameswar, Judge, Supreme Court of India.
He was delivering the Convocation Address at the 10th Annual Convocation of the National University of Advanced Legal Studies (NUALS), Kochi, held at the NUALS Campus, Kalamassery. He opined that, indeed, courts are made of lawyers, not mere pillars and walls. So you are the nation’s conscience keepers, truly. Indian history bears out one fact: this nation’s tryst has been with lawyers and legal profession. If we want to be proud of or ashamed of it, it is our choice. To be proud of for the progress the nation has made or to be ashamed of for the snail’s pace at which we are progressing. They are the two faces of the same coin.
He exhorted the young graduating students that legal profession demands the ability to marshal facts and law. In other words, analytical ab
ility, astute reasoning, and the art of persuasion are indispensable skills a lawyer must possess. He told them that if they acquire these skills no doubt that they will flourish in the profession in the days to come.
Justice Mohan M. Shantanagoudar, Chief Justice, High Court of Kerala, who is also the Chancellor of the University, presided over the Convocation and admitted the graduating students to the various Degrees.
Judges of the High Court of Kerala, Justice P. R. Ramachandra Menon, Justice V. Chithambaresh, Justice Devan Ramachandran, Justice K. S. Radhakrishnan, Former Judge of the Supreme Court,
C. P. Sudhakara Prasad, Advocate General of Kerala, Prof. (Dr.) Rose Varghese, Vice- Chancellor, other members of the Executive Council, General Council and Academic Council of the University, Advocates and other invitees participated in this august function.
As part of the Convocation, the Executive Council of the University met to supplicate graces on candidates who were declared by the Board of Examiners to be qualified for the degree. The Chief Guest, the Chancellor, the Vice-Chancellor, members of the Executive Council, General Council and Academic Council participated in the Convocation in ceremonial robes and proceeded to the Convocation Hall in an academic
procession. The Chief Guest, Justice Jasti Chelameswar, Judge, Supreme Court of India, awarded the C. K. Sivasankara Panicker Memorial Gold Medal for the best Law student, Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer Memorial Endowment Gold Medal for the best student in Constitutional Law, T. R. Raman Pillai Memorial Endowment Gold Medal for the best student in Criminal Law and Procedure and M. K. Nambiyar Endowment Gold Medal for the best student in Public Law to Joshita Jothi, the NUALS PTA Gold Medal for the 2nd best
outgoing student to Laya Mary Joseph and Nani A. Palkhivala Memorial Endowment Gold Medal for the best Post Graduate student in Law to Pinku Mariam Jose.
80 students of the B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) Degree Course and 37 students of the One Year LL.M. Degree Course of the 2015 Batch and 1 student of the Ph.D. Programme were being awarded the degrees at the Convocation held today. Several students of this batch have started practising with leading lawyers and a few have preferred higher studies in India and abroad. Many of them have been selected by corporate law firms through campus recruitment.