Bar Council chairman Manan Kumar Mishra under pressure to step down

Despite conciliatory noises by Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman Manan Kumar Mishra and an olive branch held out to the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) on Friday, 14 August, pressure was mounting on him to step down, along with growing demands for an inquiry into the BCI's accounts.

"The Bar Council of India must account for every rupee spent during BJP MP Manan Mishra's tenure. The Bar Council Chairman should make a full and true disclosure of assets. His Rajya Sabha affidavit declares assets worth Rs 15 crore. What's the source and nature of this money?" asked a member of the Bar upset with Mishra's clumsy attempt to block the enrolment of the outgoing batch of law students from NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad.

Mishra had issued the controversial direction on Thursday, 13 August, asking state bar councils not to enrol NALSAR graduates as lawyers. He withdrew it within hours.

In an interview with ANI on Friday, Mishra sought to downplay the episode as a "misunderstanding" and "communication gap" and said his goals were the same as those of CJP's Abhijeet Dipke and Saurav Das. The CJP had warned him to withdraw the direction to state bar councils not to enrol NALSAR graduates.

Das had also shared an audit report showing that the BCI had spent a whopping Rs 14 crore on meetings and seminars in a single year, and called for an independent audit.

Mishra has been BCI chairman for a record seventh term since 2012, overshadowing the record of late Ram Jethmalani, who was elected BCI chairman four times.

The BCI under his tenure has rarely shared information on disciplinary action taken against advocates charged with misconduct or action taken against law colleges for not providing quality education. Even as Chief Justice of India Surya Kant dehumanised the youth — he later explained that he was referring to young and poorly trained lawyers, which arguably made the remark worse — neither the BCI nor Mishra even squeaked.

The BCI is a body created by Parliament under the Advocates Act, 1961. Section 7 of the Act sets out that the BCI may lay down standards of professional conduct, prescribe disciplinary procedure, safeguard the rights and interests of advocates, promote law reform, regulate legal education, recognise and inspect universities, organise legal aid, hold its elections and manage its funds.

Under Mishra's tenure, however, a section of lawyers complain that BCI meetings have been few, records have rarely been kept and resolutions record no dissent, presumably because the council does not allow deliberations.

Mishra also presides over the BCI Trust that runs institutions such as the India International University of Legal Education and Research (IIULER) in Goa, established in 2022. Following a Supreme Court directive, Mishra confirmed that a National Legal Academy (NLA) would be set up at the IIULER campus in Goa. The academy will provide compulsory training for lawyers across India, lasting 10 days to two weeks.

Mishra has overseen plans to complete construction of IIULER's main campus at Dharbandora, Goa, spread over more than 50 acres, within two years, in collaboration with Goa's chief minister and advocate-general.

Mishra is also known to issue press releases on the BCI letterhead under his own signature on sensitive subjects. In July, he courted controversy by alleging that anti-nationals had entered the "so-called student protests" at Delhi's Jantar Mantar and that their aim was to destabilise India. He also alleged that huge foreign funds were sourced for the protests and that media campaigns had been orchestrated at the behest of Pakistan, China, Bangladesh and other countries.

In December 2019, during the anti-CAA protests, Mishra signed a BCI letter expressing solidarity with the police and armed forces and requesting Bar leaders and young students to "take active role in diffusing the disturbances and violence in the country" and convince the "illiterate and ignorant masses" that they should await the decision of the apex court.

When senior advocate Dushyant Dave wrote in a column that every chief justice since 2014 had failed the judiciary, Mishra criticised his "myopic mindset" on BCI letterhead and went on to state: "A closer look reveals that far from failing the Constitution, the Supreme Court under each chief justice since May 2014 has delivered decisions that have affirmed and advanced democratic values, expanded civil liberties, upheld institutional independence, and preserved the foundational principles of our republic."

Mishra's statement criticising the protest at Jantar Mantar demanding the resignation of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan mentioned that "certain politicians have foreign blood flowing in their veins". It treated criticism of the government as hostility to the nation. Stone-pelters were reportedly brought from Jammu and Kashmir. Wild allegations of payments reportedly made, a politician reputedly close to a foreign financier receiving funds, among other claims, were circulated by the BCI. Lawyers criticised Mishra for using the BCI letterhead to express his personal opinions.

Mishra had famously sought a holiday in courts across the country to enable lawyers to attend or witness the consecration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya in January 2024.

He had also criticised "disgruntled senior advocates" and former judges brought to the fore via 'social media, electronic media and print media to castigate and scandalise judiciary by imputing baseless motives on the Supreme Court judges' and for allegedly attacking judicial independence.

As BCI chairman, Mishra also went on record to say that comments made by former Supreme Court judge Madan B. Lokur were "idle talk" against the institution of the apex court and undermined the authority of the judiciary as a whole.

"We have heard Justice Lokur giving sermons that no-one from the Bench and the Bar should ever indulge in act that would shake the faith of the public in judiciary. Now, he himself become part of these misguided group of people is a mind-boggling departure by him of his own much hyped principles," he had declared in a press release following Justice Lokur's lament that the court had let down migrant workers forced out of shelter and employment following the Covid lockdown.

The NALSAR episode has now brought these longstanding questions about Mishra's use of the BCI's institutional authority back into focus. The controversy is not merely about a direction that was withdrawn within hours; it has revived questions among lawyers about the council's finances, functioning and the extent to which its chairman uses the institution's platform to intervene in political and judicial controversies.