'Bar deserves better': BCI co-chair calls upon Manan Mishra to step down

Bar Council's co-chair Y R Sadashiva Reddy has listed eight grounds for seeking his chief's resignation, including the BCI's handling of the Nalsar controversy and alleged financial irregularities

Senior Advocate and Bar Council of India (BCI) co-Chairman YR Sadashiva Reddy on Saturday sought the immediate resignation of BCI Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra. In a letter dated August 22, 2026, Reddy alleged irregularities in appointments, diversion of Council funds, financial dealings with law colleges and other governance issues.

 

“The Bar of this country deserves better than what it is presently receiving from its own Council. I ask you to allow it that opportunity,” Reddy said in his letter.

 

He has also sought an independent inquiry, and has demanded that Mishra resign immediately or within 15 days of receiving the letter, besides seeking a special meeting of the Bar Council and a special audit of the Council and BCI trust 'PEARL-First'.

 

Nalsar controversy

Reddy has listed eight grounds on which Mishra must quit, including the BCI's handling of the recent controversy involving the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (Nalsar).

 

According to Reddy, the BCI chairman's office directed that the 2026 graduating batch of Nalsar University of Law not be enrolled after students objected to Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant being invited as the chief guest for their convocation. He alleged that the decision to exclude the graduating class from enrolment to the Bar was taken without the matter being placed before or deliberated upon by the BCI.

 

"The point is that the office of Chairman was used to threaten an entire graduating batch of law students - young men and women with no power and no voice - with exclusion from the profession, as a reprisal for having held an opinion. That single act, in my respectful but firm view, has done more damage to the standing of this Council than anything else in its history, and it is by itself sufficient ground for you to demit office," Reddy’s letter read.

 

"I was not consulted. To the best of my knowledge, the Council as a body was not consulted," Reddy noted in the letter.

 

The BCI's diktat was reversed within hours after an intense and widespread backlash. The Supreme Court had also criticised the BCI's move, with CJI Kant himself calling the action "totally uncalled for".

 

Mishra later apologised to law students over the controversy. "If anything connected with the present controversy, any of my words, or letter, has hurt the feelings of our law students, I sincerely regret and apologise for the same," he said in an Independence Day message.

Funds transfer to BCI Trust

Reddy has also raised the issue of transfer of Rs 150 crore from the BCI to BCI Trust PEARL-First.

 

He questioned why the new Trust was created when the earlier BCI Trust was allowed to fall into disuse. He also said BCI members had not been shown the Trust Deed.

 

He also noted that law colleges seeking approval or renewal from the BCI were being asked to contribute to PEARL-First, claiming the alleged contributions ranged from Rs 25 lakh to Rs 50 lakh and up to Rs 1 crore.

 

"It is not a licence to raise funds," Reddy said.

 

He said accepting money from entities regulated by the BCI would undermine the regulator's authority.

 

Reddy has demanded a special audit of the BCI and BCI Trust PEARL-First from the Trust's registration to date. He has asked that the audit be conducted by an independent firm empanelled with the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG). He has also sought publication of the audit report and the complete staff position on the BCI website.

Allegations over appointments

Reddy has also claimed that appointments at BCI were made without advertisements, selection committee proceedings, or comparative merit lists. He also alleged that several employees were connected to Mishra or his family.

 

"A striking proportion of the staff are persons connected to you personally, several of them being members of, or related to, your own family," Reddy said in the letter.

 

He raised concerns over factionalism within State Bar Councils and Mishra's continued tenure as BCI chairman since 2012, including his re-election in 2025.

 

"An elected office that has one occupant for fourteen years has ceased, in any real sense, to be an elected office," Reddy said.

 

Reddy also referred to protests by advocates seeking Mishra's resignation and alleged a wider loss of confidence in the BCI leadership.

 

"When the regulator of a profession is publicly repudiated by the profession it regulates, by the students it is meant to nurture, and by the courts before which it appears, the question of its Chairman's continuance is no longer a matter of personal preference. It is a question of institutional survival," Reddy said in his letter.

 

Reddy said he had no personal animosity towards Mishra and had served alongside him for a decade.

 

"There are able persons in this Council capable of restoring it. Standing down now, of your own accord, is the one course still open to you that would be to your credit," the letter read. 

Plea in SC seeking removal of Manan Mishra

A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the prolonged tenure of Bar Council of India (BCI) Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra and seeking his removal, news agency PTI reported. 

 

Advocate Yogamaya MG, who filed the plea, said Mishra was first elected BCI chairman in 2012. He briefly left the post in 2014 but returned in November that year and has remained chairman since.

 

According to the report, the plea cites Rule 12(2) of the BCI Rules, which prescribes a two-year term for the chairman and vice-chairman. It also challenges an April 21, 2025, Gazette notification extending Mishra's tenure until 2030,