00:00Many other prominent personalities of the state of Haryana and beyond that who are also present here to grace the
00:07occasion.
00:13To be here as Chief Justice of India to celebrate the 50th anniversary of this university.
00:281976 was a different India. Haryana had a few universities.
00:37Kurukshetra University had served the region since 1956.
00:44And Maharishi Gandhi University emerged to meet the aspirations of Southern Haryana at that time.
00:55As a young boy from the neighboring district of Visar, I believe my journey ran parallelly with this prestigious institution.
01:10I essentially hope my success is reflective of this institution's elite pedigree.
01:30About an hour back, Swant Jantidwar was inaugurated.
01:39To me, it is not just an architectural marker of 50 years.
01:47It represents the generations who have passed through Maharishi Gandhi University's gates.
01:55Generations which arrived as uncertain students like me and departed as assured professionals.
02:06The first generation of 70s and 80s came from villages and small towns, often with modest means but considerable resolve.
02:21Today, that generation serves, like for example, I am there in the Supreme Court.
02:30That generation serves the elite public institutions.
02:36That generation feel proud in building enterprises across these sectors.
02:45Subsequent generations have strengthened that legacy, positioning Haryana permanently on the national and global map.
02:59There are numerous instances which I concord, but for the time constraint, that how the sports person, academia, bureaucrats, judges,
03:10doctors, engineers, start-ups, entrepreneurs, belonging to Haryana, those who rooted their educational career through this university, have made proud
03:23and brought laurels to the nation as a whole.
03:30But let us acknowledge that Maharishi Gandhi University did not create the success.
03:39It created the pathway.
03:42It removed barriers, democratized opportunities and demonstrated that merit matters most.
03:53Looking back to my own years which I spent here in 1981-1984, this campus was the first place where
04:03no one cared which village I came from or what my father did.
04:11One was measured by intellectual reader and by their capabilities.
04:17I sat with people, some of whom were very different from me, that disparity did not discourage me or my
04:29peers who were also alive.
04:31Rather, it compelled us with discipline and a desire to learn.
04:41What really stayed with me and which I witnessed as students with privileged father and those with nothing sometimes succeeded.
04:52It taught me, it taught me never to prejudge capacity by background, a principle foundational to judicial responsibility.
05:09When I look towards the next generation of the students who have been shoulder multifarious responsibilities in different walks of
05:21life, whether it comes to the protection of our borders, as this particular region is proud of producing best of
05:34the soldiers,
05:34the soldiers of the Indian Army, Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard, any name, anywhere.
05:41Fortunately, during the last couple of years when I am travelling, I will hopefully meet very young, brave, brave officers
05:51belonging to reach our land.
05:55So, in that perspective, I believe that education is increasingly being seen as a transactional, a means to achieve lucrative
06:10placement packages.
06:11That is what nowadays in the new students' era gives that impression.
06:18And they do at the cost of learning the true craft and skill, which comes only with patience and persistence.
06:29Therefore, my dear young students, your generation has access to information and opportunities we could never imagine.
06:39But you also face pressures we never did.
06:44The feeling that everyone else is ahead induced most of the time by social media.
06:54Therefore, I, to the young people, I wish to say, do not sacrifice depth for speed.
07:04Do not detach ambition from integrity and remember that the pathway to achievement is as consequential as achievement itself.
07:19Today, Professor Raj Kishmi and the University asked me to inaugurate two structures,
07:31Svanjantidwar and one hall.
07:34These are not merely commemorative structures.
07:39They signal institutional resolve.
07:43The true measure of these structures will lie in the fairness and opportunity the institution continue to ensure.
07:54Fifty years have built a legacy, but they also impose responsibility.
08:00Every stakeholder present here is a custodian of Mary Siddharna University's next sector,
08:11and trusted with strengthening its credibility and ambition.
08:18I have no reason to doubt, and I am absolutely confident that those who have been given a proud career
08:29by this University,
08:31and those who have joined the University with that ambition in mind, their commitment, their dedication, their attachment, their sentiments,
08:43their contribution, will continue to enhance the image, the reputation and prestige of this proud institution, which has given me
08:55everything in my life.
08:57Thank you very much.
08:58Thank you very much.
08:59Thank you for this presentation.
09:00Thank you the University.
09:01Thank you all of you for inviting me and giving this opportunity to share my views.
09:07I would have loved to speak a little more, but for the, as I said earlier, the time constraints.
09:15Since yesterday, there is a Commonwealth Judges and Judicial Educators Conference, which is going on in Delhi.
09:23There are several countries which are participating.
09:26I am the chief host of that conference.
09:29I inaugurated it yesterday, then I spoke in the morning for, I had a very lengthy, my viewpoint there.
09:39Then again I will go back and I have to resume my afternoon commitments there.
09:43So, thank you very much for inviting me, giving this opportunity.
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