BCI chairman faces fresh pressure as co-chairman seeks resignation

Stress on incumbent Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman Manan Kumar Mishra mounted on Saturday (August 22, 2026), with a requirement for his resignation being formally raised throughout a bodily assembly of the BCI Basic Council at its workplace in New Delhi.

BCI member Manoj Kumar Narendran from Keralam known as for Mr. Mishra’s resignation through the assembly, inserting the demand straight earlier than the Basic Council. His name was supported by one other BCI member from Uttar Pradesh, advocate Srinath Tripathi.

Mr Narendran advised The Hindu that Mr. Mishra didn’t settle for the demand and that the following plan of action can be determined later. Mr. Narendran stated the functioning of the BCI had, over time, more and more come to be recognized with the authority and selections of its chairman relatively than the collective will of the Council.

“Of specific concern is the modification by which the tenure of the chairman was prolonged to 5 years. Critical questions come up relating to the legality of such an modification and the way wherein it was caused, notably when its impact was to straight profit the incumbent chairman by enabling a considerably longer continuance in workplace,” Mr. Narendran stated.

The demand on the Basic Council assembly got here on the heels of a letter by BCI co-chairman Y.R. Sadasiva Reddy, who additionally known as upon Mr. Mishra to step down and sought an impartial probe right into a sequence of allegations regarding the functioning and monetary administration of the statutory physique.

Mr. Mishra, who has helmed the put up of chairman for over a decade, can be dealing with a contemporary petition filed earlier than the Supreme Court docket questioning his extended tenure.

The controversy surrounding the BCI chairman intensified after the council issued a round on August 13 directing State Bar Councils not to enrol graduates of NALSAR’s 2026 batch, following objections by college students to the participation of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant at their convocation. The directive was withdrawn inside hours after an outcry from the authorized fraternity. Mr. Mishra subsequently apologised to the scholars.

Nonetheless, the apology did little to quell criticism. The Bombay Bar Association on August 18 criticised the dealing with of the episode and described the apology as “belated”, whereas saying that Mr. Mishra must have already resigned.

Earlier on Thursday, greater than 200 attorneys gathered exterior the BCI workplace beneath the banner of the All India Younger Advocates Affiliation, elevating calls for together with reforms within the BCI’s election mechanism and higher accountability in its functioning.

In his letter on Saturday, Mr. Reddy known as upon Mr. Mishra to resign and sought an impartial examination of a variety of points referring to the functioning and monetary administration of the council.

The letter raised questions over appointments throughout the BCI institution, with Mr. Reddy alleging {that a} “hanging proportion of the employees are individuals related to you (Mr. Mishra) personally, a number of of them being members of, or associated to, your individual household”.

Mr. Reddy additionally alleged that the Bar Council of India Belief had been rendered defunct and that the council’s funds had been being diverted to a newly created BCI Belief PEARL-FIRST. Mr. Reddy additional alleged that contributions had been being demanded from regulation schools in search of approval or renewal of approval.

He stated, “Persistent and credible complaints have reached me, from multiple State, that managements of recent regulation schools approaching the Bar Council of India for approval, and managements of present schools approaching it for renewal, are being required to make “contributions” to the stated belief, in quantities starting from ₹25 lakhs to ₹50 lakhs to ₹1 crore.”

Mr. Reddy additionally questioned Mr. Mishra’s extended occupancy of the chairmanship and argued for higher rotation and illustration within the management of the apex regulatory physique for the authorized occupation.

“You (Mr. Mishra) have held that workplace constantly since 2012, and had been returned an extra consecutive time period in 2025. That is with out precedent. When elections to the workplace fall due, the preparations are so managed that the result is a foregone conclusion. An elected workplace that has one occupant for fourteen years has ceased, in any actual sense, to be an elected workplace.”