The calls for the resignation of Bar Council of India (BCI) Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra have intensified but Mishra has refused to quit. The chief of BCI denied that he should step down because of protests from lawyers and said that his long tenure was a result of being elected repeatedly to the post.
Mishra said he served as the chairman of the Bar Council of India for 12 to 14 years because he was elected, he said, and is representing more than 25 lakh lawyers in India. But he said he would not resign because some of the lawyers wanted that.
The controversy comes as criticism of the BCI has taken hold since its recent action on the students of NALSAR University of Law in Hyderabad.
The council had issued a communication to State Bar Councils to not process the recruitment of the 2026 graduating batch of students and also to ensure that Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant is not attending their convocation.
The order was withdrawn after intense criticism. Mishra later apologised to students and said he regretted any communication or remarks that might have hurt their feelings. The CJI also pointed out that BCI intervention was unnecessary and supported the students’ right to protest.
The NALSAR episode has now turned into a larger debate about the functioning of the country’s apex body for lawyers. During protests outside the BCI office in New Delhi, lawyers raised issues such as advocate welfare and stipends for young lawyers to chambers, professional conditions and the regulation of law colleges.
Protesters have also questioned Mishra’s long tenure. The BCI’s leadership history shows that he first served as chairman in 2012 and later returned to the position, with his tenure at the helm stretching over roughly 14 years.
The resignation demand has also been backed by members of the organised legal community. On August 22, BCI Co-Chairman and Senior Advocate Y.R. Sadasiva Reddy wrote to Mishra asking for his resignation and made many serious allegations of the administration of the council and recent decisions.
These are made in the letter and have not been proven as facts.
At the same time, Mishra has supporters in the legal fraternity who say an elected office-holder can’t be removed because protesters are demanding his resignation. Some lawyers have defended his electoral mandate and said the BCI chairman represents millions of advocates.
The dispute therefore goes beyond one resignation demand. It has opened a wider discussion around accountability, elections, leadership tenure and the obligations of the Bar Council of India.
With the criticism going on on one side and Mishra following his elected mandate on the other, the issue is going to be one of the bigger talking points in the legal community in India.
