Bar Council of India (BCI) Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra has been named and challenged for extending details in his notification to hold the office of the chairman for another five years, in the Supreme Court by filing a petition.
In the plea, filed by advocate MG Yogamaya, it has been claimed that the chairman’s tenure as provided in BCI rules is for two years only. It calls into doubt Mishra’s hold on the country’s top legal profession and legal education regulator, along with one of the April 2025 Gazette notifications, providing him a nod to stay on till 2030.
The petition also seeks to call into question continuation of the BCI vice chairman. It wants an interim resolution on establishing an independent administrative committee to look after the BCI’s affairs in case of the removal of Mishra.
Also, the plea requests an independent committee consisting of a judge to review budgeting and appointments of the BCI.
The petition has been filed around the time a controversy erupted over Mishra’s lenient approach to the students of NALSAR University of Law. The University of Delhi had suspended permission to enroll the graduating class of students in the different state bar councils after Mishra sent a letter saying that his doubts about Chief Justice of India Surya Kant attending the convocation of the university’s batches were justified and thus, it was advisable to reconsider the matter.
The order was then canceled and the BCI stated that it will investigate claims made by students to be affected by teachers and outsiders. The episode also stirred a controversy among the CJI, who had a doubt regarding whether the BCI chairman had the power to issue such a direction.
On August 15th Mishra issued an apology and thanked them for the tolerance and forbearance shown to him, for which he is deeply grateful. Then, lawyer groups demanded his removal and were staging protests outside the BCI office.
In the new petition, it has not just been a matter of the exclusion of an individual, but allegations of “structural illegality,” extended concentration of the authority of the statutes, violation of the tenure and election provisions, and lack of transparency and accountability.
It, in particular, refers to Rule 12(2) of the BCI Rules which imposes a limit of two years for the chairman’s tenure and doubts Mishra’s continuation since 2014 and further extension till 2030.