The Chancellor and members of the General Council have done me a great honour by inviting me to be the Chief Guest at the Seventh Convocation of The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences. As a lifelong resident of Kolkata, and a member of the academic community of the city, I have watched with some pride the nation-wide reputation that NUJS has achieved in the last decade or so as a premier institution of training in law. It is, therefore, particularly gratifying for me that I have been given the opportunity to address the graduating students at this convocation. I am also delighted to be sharing the dais with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who was my fellow student at the Presidency College, Calcutta, in the mid-1960s and whom I am meeting after forty-five years. I have many fond memories of those years, not all of which can be shared in this august gathering. Allow me only to make the remark that even though they say that morning shows the day, Altamas Kabir at the age of twenty did not display any of the gravitas of a future Chief Justice of India. He was jovial, fun-loving, sometimes mischievous and always a very loyal friend. The lesson that I will draw for you, the graduating class of this university, is that the youthful frivolities and indiscretions that all of us have indulged in as college students are no impediment to achieving the highest levels of excellence and distinction in professional life…