Most students who die by suicide from Dalit, Adivasi communities; judges cannot shy away from social realities: CJI DY Chandrachud

Incidents of suicides among students from marginalised sections are increasing and research has shown that most such students are from Dalit and Adivasi communities, Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud said on Saturday..The CJI lamented this is because of discrimination which stems from lack of empathy."Prof Sukhdev Thorat has noted that most of students who died of suicide has been Dalits and Adviasis and that it then shows a pattern which we must question. In 75 years we have focused on creating institutions of eminence but more than that we need to create institutions of empathy. I am speaking on this because the issue of discrimination is directly linked with lack of empathy," he said.In this context, he also said that judges cannot shy away from social realities and cited the example of how nine judges of the Supreme Court of United States had released a statement during the black lives movement garnered momentum. "Judges cannot shy away from social realities and instances of judicial dialogue is common across the globe. When the black lives matter movement emerged after the murder of George Floyd, all 9 judges of the US Supreme Court released a joint statement to the judiciary ...on the degradation and devaluation of black lives. Harvard Law School professor says people forget what work civil rights lawyers did to educate the black community," he stated.Similarly Judges in India have a dialogue with the society inside and outside the courtroom, he added.The CJI was delivering the keynote address at the 19th Annual Convocation of National Academy of Legal Studies and Research University of Law, Hyderabad (NALSAR)..CJI Chandrachud also said that apart from his judicial and administrative work, he has also been attempting to throw light on various structural issues which confront our society.On the social discrimination faced by students from marginalised communities, he said that one of the first step towards ending the same would be to stop allotment of hostel rooms based on marks secured in entrance exam. "It can start with ending allotment of hostels on basis of entrance marks which leads to caste based segregation," he said.He also said practices like putting out a list of marks obtained by students along with social categories, asking for marks of dalit and adivasi students publicly to humiliate them, making mockery of their English proficiency and labelling them as inefficient, should end."Not acting on incidents of abuse and bullying, not providing support system, ending fellowships, normalising stereotypes through jokes, are some of the basic things which every educational institutions must stop," he underlined..In this regard, he also highlighted how National Law Universities which were expected to be accessible institutions focused on quality legal education, have remained inaccessible for a large section. "In my view the experiment with NLUs was to create accessible institutions focussed on quality legal education and not to create elite institutions. However, the NLUs have been struggling to be accessible to a wide section of the society, concerns are continuously raised about the entrance exam pattern of NLUs which acts as a access barrier for students not well acquainted with English," he said.However, the CJI also said that changing the entrance exam pattern for NLUs would be futile if NLUs do not have a conducive atmosphere for students from marginalised backgrounds. "Financial barriers are serious and NLUs along with State governments should improve financial affordability," he stated..[Read live coverage of event below]