The Ninth Annual Convocation of the students of National Law University, Odisha (NLUO) was held on 17September 2022 at the Amphitheatre of National Law University Odisha, Cuttack. Hon’ble Mr. Justice U.U. Lalit, Chief Justice of Indiaand Visitor, NLUO was the Chief Guest for the occasion and delivered the Convocation Address. Hon’ble Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, Judge of Supreme Court was the Guest of Honour. Hon’ble Mr. Justice M.R.Shah, Judge Supreme Court of India and Visitor’s Nominee, NLUO presided over the Convocation. Hon’ble Dr. Justice S. Muralidhar, Chief Justice of Orissa High Court and Chancellor of the university delivered the Chancellor’s address and conferred the degrees on the graduating students. Sitting Judges of High Court of Orissa, Senior Advocates, Judicial Officers also graced the occasion.

At the 9^th Convocation, total of 221 graduands were awarded degrees, including 4 Doctorate Degrees, 38 LLM candidates, and 172 from undergraduate courses – 113 and 59 candidates respectively from the BA LLB and BBA LLB streams. A total number of 22 gold medals were awarded to students in the convocation this year.

The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Ved Kumari, began her address by welcoming the guests and dignitaries. She announced that NLUO will celebrate the year 2023 as theYear of Child Rights, ChildWelfare?nd Child Wellbeing.?his year would be dedicated to children who are not onlyinstrumental for our society but who have the power and potential to determine the future of ournation.

Further, Prof. Ved Kumari highlighted the activities of the university in the year 2021, some of which are as follows:

• NLUO has been working extensively in structured community outreaching, and has adopted five villages – Dompada, Kushpangi, Naraj, Mundali and Amarendrapur, situated in the Cuttack district, under the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA) Programme of Ministry of HRD. Anambulance along with free medical services has been made available for these villages. The UBA Cell has also started its own YouTube channel where awareness lectures and videos about diverse subjects catering to different audiences are regularly uploaded.
• NLUO in collaboration with SAHAYA, with a vision of improving accessibility of legal texts for all, got the entire Constitution of India written in Braille language and recorded in the Odia language for the first time in the country, thus paving the way for easy access to legal texts for all the people.
• NLUO has over the years through its research centres also worked towards capacity building of its faculty members, thus the Centre for Consumer Law organized a 45-hour mediation training program allowing the faculty members to become trained mediators. The faculty members are now eligible to mediate disputes in the court setup at the district and High Court mediation cells.
• A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between National Law University Odisha and The Centre for Adivasi Research and Development (referred to as CARD), Odisha towards working on disseminating new and changing domains of ideas, discourse, and knowledge which facilitate in crafting of policies of the state or union for promoting larger interests of the disadvantaged communities, especially the Adivasi group.
• The university also signed an MoU with the Directorate of Prisons and Correctional Services, Odisha. Under this Arrangement, the University and Prison Dept. will jointly perform various research activities and training programmes.
• Aimed at implementing pro bono legal services across the country, a first-of-its-kind Pro Bono club under the DISHA scheme was also inaugurated. Constituted by several stakeholders in the legal and law space, the Pro Bono Club acts as a voluntary facilitator of legal services to the public who vulnerably seem to be in a legal blind spot of society.

She further gave a report about the activities of the Research Centres and Student Societies and Committees of the University ranging from lectures, national consultation meet, webinars, essay competition, workshops, certificate course, plantation drives, etc. Prof. Ved Kumari also highlighted the student achievements in various national and international moot court competitions, parliamentary debate competitions, and other extra-curricular competitions.

Hon’ble Mr. Justice M.R. ShahJudge Supreme Court of India and Visitor’s Nominee, NLUO presiding over the Convocation delivered the first address. He began his address by acknowledging the contribution of NLUO and the remarkable achievements of its students as brilliant scholars, thinkers, members of judiciary. NLUO is not about academics alone but also about extra-curricular activities, he said. He expressed his pride to be associated with the university as its Visitor, subsequently. He congratulated the graduating students and advised them to apply the acquired knowledge effectively and participate in nation-building. Treat failures as stepping stones for success. Those who wish to join litigation should be thorough in preparation, presentation and with perfection, he expressed. Those who wish to join judiciary or corporate firms should uphold their ethics and not compromise them. Hard-work and service to the society should be the motto of students graduating with their degrees, said Justice Shah.

Hon’ble Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, Judge of Supreme Court and Guest of Honour began his address by congratulating the students, parents and faculty. Through these convocations he reaches out to his own faculty reminiscing about his faculty members of law school, he said. He also reminisced about his parents and their contribution in his growing up years and shaping his life. He addressed the graduating students expressing that they have learnt the craft, information and knowledge of law. Law as a profession requires discipline. Life as students should not only enable you learn the law but also think about the law, he said. “Law as a discipline brings us reason and dialogue. It challenges tyranny and arbitrariness. Law is a vital element in our society because society can be stable so long as law can encourage inclusion, pluralism, respecting each other’s views, accepting each other”, he said. He shared his experience at the helm of graduating as a student, stating that students these days have numerous choices – from being lawyers to judges, politicians, public service, painters, actors. Law is not a constrained discipline; it rather broadens your horizon. Law brings you face to face with the diversity of human experience. He hoped that some graduating students would enter litigation. ‘Your choice is your choice, and there is no one fixed choice – don’t regret the choices you make’, he said. Make the choice to be a compassionate good human being, he advised the students. He encouraged the students to be of service to be others, and stated they are going to be role models for the future of the society. They should challenge the patriarchal values of the society and lead it towards a better future. Young lawyers are the change the society needs.

He also spoke about information and technology’s influence in our lives, and how we live in information bubbles. He expressed the danger of our society of being associated with only like-minded people. He encouraged everyone to associate with others who are not necessarily of the same genre as you are. As one progresses in life, it is important to move from spectrum of information ton spectrum of knowledge and from there to spectrum of vision, only then will one attain their true potential, said Justice Chandrachud. He urged the young generation to ask questions, challenge the status quo. Life as a lawyer, as a judge is about teaching and touching the lives of those who you have never met in life, he said.

The Convocation Address was delivered by Hon’ble Mr. Justice U.U. Lalit, Chief Justice of India. Visitor, NLUO and Chief Guest for the occasion. He began his address by appreciating Hon’ble Dr. Justice DY Chandrachud. Legal profession is a noble profession, because judging fellow citizens, adjudicating their conduct, deciding to certain extent their future, and law graduates and lawyers are part of this journey, he said. Legal profession has been one of the frontrunners in teaching civil rights and liberties, raising voices against any kind of injustice. Many freedom fighters, founders of constituent assembly were from the legal profession. Thus, the graduating students will be the torchbearers, where the society will be looking forward to their contribution. Sharing his words of wisdom from experience of 38 years, he said, as a legal professional one must have complete passion for their work, immerse themselves completely to deliver to the best of their abilities. Secondly, there must be compassion for fellow countrymen. Adopt a code of conduct that will benefit your fellow citizens. He further encouraged the students to join judicial service, as it is one of the most promising and satisfying experiences. He expressed that legal aid work in the country is a bit neglected. He encouraged students to think of legal aid, and do more legal aid work, which will give them an opportunity to give back to the society what they have learnt at law school.

Out of the 22 gold medals, NLU Odisha has instituted six, while various dignitaries of the legal fraternity have donated the remaining 16.

• Suprabh Garg received the highest number of gold medals- seven gold medals.He was awarded the Dinabandhu Sahu Memorial Gold Medal for 1st Rank in the B.A.,LL.B. (Hons.) Degree, Gagan Bihari Das Memorial Gold Medal, Ras Behari Ray Gold Medal, State Bank of India Gold Medal, Nisamoni Devi and Bhagabat Charan Mohanty Memorial Gold Medal, Smart Chip Gold Medal, and the University Gold Medal for Highest Score in in Intellectual Property Laws.
• Aarya Jha received five gold medals – Smt. Pavani Easwara Lakshmi Memorial Gold Medal, Best All-Round Female Student, Madhusudan Mohanty Memorial Gold Medal for Outstanding Leadership, and the University Gold Medal for second rank in BA LLB.
• Sushmit Mandal also received four gold medals – Shri M.L. Mitra Memorial Gold Medal for first rank in B.B.A L.L.B (Hons.), SKS Juris Legal Group Gold Medal,nstitute of Company Secretary Gold Medal for Overall Topper, Shri Bichitrananda Mahanty Memorial Gold Medal for Best All Round Male Student.
• The Satyakamal Memorial Gold Medal for Highest Score in Personal Law, was awarded to Rituparna Padhy.
• The Ritwik Das Gold Medal for Outstanding Performance in Outdoor Sports was awarded to Toshaar Trivedi.
• The University Gold Medal for third rank in BBA LL.B was awarded to Shivalika Rudrabatla.
• The University Gold Medals for third rank in BALLB and second rank in BBALL.B, respectively, were awarded to Jayesh Advani andMr. Arvind Sankar, respectively.
• This year the University Gold Medal for Frist Rank in LLM has been given for each stream of specialization. The gold medal for First Rank LLM in Constitutional Law was awarded to Neha Rani, while the gold medal for First Rank LLM in Corporate Law was awarded toMs. Kavya P H.

The Registrar of NLUOdishaProf. Yogesh Pratap Singh, dignitaries from the legal fraternity, staff of NLUO were also present in the occasion.

PHOTO GALLERY

Live Streaming of the 9th Convocation of the NLU Odisha