President Pranab Mukherjee today emphasised that lawyers have a duty to fight injustice and uphold the rule of law in society and called upon the law graduates to lend their voice to voiceless people, represent the powerless and obtain justice for them.
The President's speech was read out by the National Law University Chancellor and Orissa High Court Chief Justice D H Waghela at the convocation function here.
Mukherjee had cut short his two-day Odisha visit midway on Friday night and left for New Delhi as his wife Suvra fell ill and was hospitalised.
Hailing the Constitution as the most inspiring and noble, the president called upon the law students to study it and understand Indian political systems and processes properly.
"The Constitution of India must be at the back of your mind, its spirit at the bottom of your heart," he said adding it stood as a "powerful guarantor of justice, liberty and equality".
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Justices Dipak Misra, V Gopal Gowda and Amitava Roy of Supreme Court were part of the Convocation procession along with University Chancellor Justice Waghela, Vice-chancellor Srikrishna Deva Rao and Registrar Dolly Jabbal.
A law journal of the university 'Access to Justice' was released at the function and a single scholar Rangin Ballav Tripathy was awarded the PhD degree, while 42 students got LLM degrees and 109 got LLB degrees.
