Nalsar controversy: Students' dissent, BCI's move, backlash, and a U-turn

Hyderabad's Nalsar University invited CJI Surya Kant to attend its convocation as chief guest, despite a campaign by students opposing his participation.

The Bar Council of India (BCI) Chairperson Manan Kumar Mishra on Thursday withdrew an order issued earlier in the day directing all State Bar Councils not to enrol any law graduate from Hyderabad’s Nalsar University of Law’s 2026 batch as an advocate.

 

Mishra said the order was due to a campaign against the participation of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant in the university's convocation.

 

What unfolded at the Nalsar University?

 

Earlier this week, the Hyderabad-based university invited CJI Kant to attend its convocation as the chief guest, though the date for the ceremony is yet to be announced. The invitation came even as a section of students had requested the university to reconsider the invitation and launched a campaign opposing his participation.

 

 

Around 450 of Nalsar’s nearly 1,400 students wrote to the university administration, urging it to reconsider the decision to invite the CJI. The students cited Kant’s remarks during a Supreme Court hearing concerning allegations of police brutality against protesters at Jantar Mantar in Delhi.

 

When a petition seeking action over the alleged police brutality came up before the CJI-led SC Bench, Kant reportedly said, “Please don’t waste our time. We don’t have time to watch these videos.”

 

The students, in an email to the university’s vice-chancellor, registrar, and professors, said, “We feel that receiving our degrees from a dignitary whose recent public conduct, as reported, appears dismissive of serious allegations of police brutality against protesting citizens, sits uncomfortably with what we have been taught to value during our time at Nalsar,” quoted news agency PTI.

 

How did the Bar Council react?

 

While directing all State Bar Councils not to enrol Nalsar’s 2026 graduates as advocates, the BCI had sought a factual report from the university on the persons allegedly instrumental in initiating and organising a campaign against Kant.

 

Mishra had said that the BCI took note of reports and material in the public domain regarding an organised campaign at Nalsar against inviting Kant to the convocation. The BCI had asked the Vice-Chancellor to furnish an authenticated factual report within three days.

 

Furthermore, the Council had specifically directed the university to identify, based on verifiable material, persons who were principally involved in initiating, drafting, circulating, coordinating or mobilising the campaign.

 

Why did BCI take a U-turn?

 

Mishra’s order drew sharp criticism from lawyers and other groups, who objected to the blanket restriction on the enrolment of Nalsar’s 2026 graduates.

 

Abhijit Dipke, founder of the Cockroach Janta Party, reacted to the order by asking, “What if all legal cockroaches come together?”

 

Vikas Singh, senior advocate and president of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), also strongly objected to the decision, arguing that the blanket restriction amounted to an attempt to intimidate law students for exercising their fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression.

 

BCI member Advocate N Manoj Kumar, who is also a member of the Bar Council of Kerala, also opposed Mishra’s decision and called the blanket direction “manifestly arbitrary” and an infringement of the graduates' constitutional rights.

 

Following the backlash, the BCI withdrew the blanket restriction, saying the “vast majority” of the students were innocent and should not be made to suffer for the alleged misconduct of a few.

 

In a letter, Mishra said, “All the students will be entitled to get enrolled with the State Bar Councils of their choice.”

 

After withdrawing the order, Mishra announced that the proceedings against the batch had been closed altogether after considering the representations and reactions of senior advocates, members of the Bar, law students and public-spirited citizens. He said the BCI was satisfied that the 2026 batch had no role in any “disturbance or movement.”