NLSIU cancels its 2026 convocation after students object to the guest list
The Bengaluru law school will post degrees in absentia. A letter signed by 165 graduating students, 409 current students and 128 alumni opposed invitations to Chief Justice Surya Kant and BCI chairman Manan Kumar Mishra. The notice cites “unavoidable circumstances” and does not name the row.
Bengaluru2 min read
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The National Law School of India University in Bengaluru told graduating students on Thursday that the 34th annual convocation, listed for 12 September, will not be held. Degrees will be conferred in absentia after governing-body approvals. Students may take certificates by courier or collect them on campus. Gold medals can be picked up on 12 September or later, in person or through an authorised representative.
Registrar Saurabh Bhattacharjee’s email blamed “unavoidable circumstances.” Vice-Chancellor Sudhir Krishnaswamy confirmed the cancellation. The notice does not mention Chief Justice of India Surya Kant or Bar Council of India chairman Manan Kumar Mishra. Both names were on the guest list that students and alumni had opposed.
On 15 August, 165 graduating students, 409 current students and 128 alumni signed a letter against those invitations. They asked the BCI for an unconditional apology to NALSAR University of Law in Hyderabad. On 13 August the BCI had directed the State Bar Council not to enrol NALSAR’s 2026 batch after that campus objected to the Chief Justice attending its own ceremony. The ban was lifted within hours. The NLSIU letter was written in support of NALSAR.
Why the chancellor is on the stage
The Chief Justice of India is chancellor of NLSIU under the National Law School of India Act, Karnataka Act 22 of 1986. The BCI chairman sits on the university’s General Council. Those are statutory seats, not courtesy titles. Kant also held a 90-minute meeting with NLSIU students, according to people who described the session to legal reporters. The university has not published minutes.
Cancelling the ceremony rather than changing the guest list keeps the chancellor’s statutory role intact and avoids a public walkout on the lawn. It also leaves 2026 graduates without the one event Indian law schools treat as the formal entry to the profession. The administration said no student will suffer an adverse consequence from the decision.
NLSIU was the first national law university, opened to students in 1988, and has ranked first in the National Institutional Ranking Framework law table since that ranking began. The chancellor-on-the-dais custom is older than the ranking. The NALSAR enrolment scare is new. Putting the two together is what produced Thursday’s notice.
What happens on 12 September now
Gold-medal winners can still come to campus that day. Everyone else waits for a form that will ask courier or collection. Governing bodies must still approve the in-absentia conferment. Until they do, the batch has completed its courses but has not been formally graduated in the university’s books.
The BCI has not issued a fresh statement on NLSIU. Kant’s office has not commented on the cancellation. The student letter remains the only public account of why 12 September emptied out. The registrar’s phrase will be the official one.
