Academic freedom is not preserved by declarations in university brochures. It survives through use. Every generation must decide whether the university remains a place where authority may actually be questioned or merely a place where students are taught that, theoretically, it can be. Seen that way, the events at NLSIU and NALSAR are not important because law students have discovered protest. Indian universities have a much longer history of student resistance. What is notable is where this resistance has emerged and more importantly against whom: within institutions increasingly identified with professionalisation, high-paying placements and carefully managed career trajectories and against authorities like the BCI and the CJI.
These students may still join corporate firms next year. Many probably will. The point is not to romanticise litigation or public interest practice over corporate firms. It is something simpler: they have demonstrated that becoming professionally successful need not require becoming institutionally deferential.