Bar Council of India (BCI) Co-Chairman YR Sadashiva Reddy has demanded BCI Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra's immediate resignation, alleging irregularities in appointments, diversion of Council funds, financial dealings involving law colleges, and other governance issues.
In a letter addressed to Mishra, the senior advocate sought an independent inquiry into the issues and asked Mishra to resign forthwith, and in any event within 15 days of receiving the letter.
"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 towards the conclusion of his letter.
Reddy also sought a special meeting of the BCI, a special audit of the Council and BCI Trust PEARL-First, and an immediate halt to contributions, donations or payments from law colleges, universities or their managements. He set out eight grounds for seeking Mishra's resignation, including the BCI's handling of the recent NALSAR controversy.
Reddy alleged that the BCI chairman's office had directed that the 2026 graduating batch of NALSAR University of Law not be enrolled, following an episode concerning students expressing an opinion relating to their convocation. He said the decision was taken without the matter being placed before the BCI or deliberated upon by the Council.
"I was not consulted. To the best of my knowledge, the Council as a body was not consulted," he said.
Reddy said the direction was withdrawn within hours following criticism, and that Mishra subsequently issued a letter expressing regret. But he said the episode had seriously damaged the BCI's standing.
"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," the letter said.
Reddy's first ground concerned appointments to the BCI establishment. He alleged that appointments were made without advertisements, selection committee proceedings or comparative merit lists, and 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," he said.
His second ground concerned the transfer of Rs 150 crore from the BCI to BCI Trust PEARL-First, which Reddy said was created after the BCI Trust was allowed to fall into disuse. He questioned the manner in which the new trust was created and said BCI members had not been shown its trust deed.
The third ground concerned complaints that law colleges seeking approval or renewal were being asked to make contributions to PEARL-First. Reddy said the alleged amounts 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, adding that a regulator accepting money from entities it regulates would undermine its authority.
Reddy also alleged that members of Mishra's family held key positions in institutions established under the BCI and the trust, questioned factionalism within State Bar Councils, and criticised Mishra's continued tenure as 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," he said.
Reddy also referred to protests by advocates demanding 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," he said.
Apart from his resignation demand, Reddy sought a special audit of the BCI and BCI Trust PEARL-First, from the trust's registration to date, by an independent firm empanelled with the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). He also sought publication of the audit report and the complete staff position on the BCI website.
Reddy said he held 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.
(With inputs from ANI)