India’s constitutional institutions are accustomed to being questioned by politicians, lawyers, activists and journalists. What should concern them more is when the questioning comes from the people being trained to inherit those institutions. That is what makes the controversy involving students of Nalsar University of Law and the National Law School of India University unusually significant. Their objection to the Chief Justice of India, Justice Surya Kant, being invited to their convocations is not merely a dispute over a ceremonial guest. It is a contest over what constitutional authority should mean to a generation entering the legal profession.

The students’ concerns have emerged from a sequence of controversies surrounding remarks attributed to the CJI and the Supreme Court’s handling of questions relating to the police response to the Cockroach Janta Party protests. Justice Kant has disputed or clarified some of the reported interpretations. Those distinctions are important. Allegations about judicial conduct should not become established facts merely because they circulate widely. But constitutional legitimacy involves more than establishing what was literally said. Judges, particularly the Chief Justice of........

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