New Delhi: From backing the controversial new criminal laws to warning senior lawyers crusading against judicial independence, to praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “chhappan inch ka seena” at a judicial function, Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman Manan Kumar Mishra has never missed an opportunity to root for the Centre.
The BCI was set up under the Advocates Act of 1961 and is meant to be an independent body to regulate the legal profession by probing lawyers accused of unethical practice and censuring them according to the law. Its role is also to ensure that the standards of legal education in India are not compromised.
As its head, Mishra oversees its implementation.
However, in the past decade, the BCI chief has been known more for stifling criticism and being a cheerleader for the government. The council has been in the news not so much for its regulatory role but for its press releases criticising lawyers and judges who spoke for judicial accountability. It has rarely shared information on how many disciplinary actions the council has taken against advocates charged with misconduct or how many law colleges have been pulled up for not providing quality education.
Mishra has raised eyebrows with some of his moves. In January this year, for example, the council wrote to Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud with an unusual request. It sought a holiday across courts on 22 January for the consecration ceremony of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. “This holiday would allow members of the legal fraternity and court staff to participate in or observe the inauguration ceremonies in Ayodhya and other related events across the country,” said the letter signed by Mishra.
On Tuesday, the BCI chairman was nominated as the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) Rajya Sabha candidate from Bihar. Mishra emerged as a dark horse and his name was announced after a high-level meeting of party leaders in Delhi. He is likely to be fielded from the Pataliputra seat that became vacant after the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Misa Bharti won in the Lok Sabha elections in June. Mishra is likely to have a four-year term as a member of the Upper House.
“His nomination has not come as a surprise. He has been the chairman of the BCI for almost 12 years now, refusing to be dislodged. In the last six years, he has used the post to make public his fondness for the ruling party and has voiced an opinion on every issue on which BCI never intervened in the past,” said a former BCI member, who did not want to be identified.
A BJP worker from Bihar said Mishra’s nomination did not surprise him even though he wasn’t an active party worker. He told ThePrint Mishra organised a meeting with lawyers in Patna to placate them over the new criminal laws. “And he did manage to convince them to change their opinion,” the leader said.
BCI co-chairman Ved Prakash Sharma feels Mishra deserves the nomination. “Ever since he became the chairman, he has worked diligently towards improving legal education. Under his leadership, the BCI has expanded the footprint of National Law Universities by increasing their numbers. The legal education committee is doing its work too by carrying out surprise inspections of legal institutions.”
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Topper, gold medalist, to PM’s cheerleader
Mishra certainly has the academic and professional credentials. Hailing from Bihar’s Gopalganj district, he studied law at Patna University. He was a topper and gold medalist in his batch and started his practice in the Patna High Court in 1982. Designated as a senior by the High Court in 2007, Mishra moved to the Supreme Court in 2009.
He forayed into Bar politics in 1989 when he was elected a member of the Bihar State Bar Council, a state-level disciplinary body for lawyers. According to the law, each state bar council has to nominate a representative to the BCI.
And Mishra got this opportunity in 2012 when the 20-member BCI chose him as its chairman. Except for a brief period of seven months in 2014, Mishra has occupied the post without any break. A chairman’s term is for two years and Mishra has been chosen unanimously to the post for six consecutive terms.
During this time, Mishra has rarely missed a chance to be a cheerleader for the Prime Minister and the government.
At the Supreme Court’s diamond jubilee celebrations on 28 January, for instance, Mishra shared the stage with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the CJI, among other dignitaries. He spoke for a little over nine minutes during which he credited the PM for the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
“In the Ram Lalla case, a decree was passed in 2019. It was not easy to get it executed. It required a strong willpower, confidence, dynamism and expertise and political skill, along with a chhappan inch ka seena to get it done. Otherwise, the judgment and decree would have been proved to be futile,” Mishra said in his address.
He went on to wish the “political hero of the world” good health and a long life.
Mishra’s endorsement of Modi at the judicial function came days after the BCI sent a letter, signed by him, to the CJI to declare 22 January a holiday for lawyers so that they could witness the Pran Pratishtha ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. The holiday, he wrote, would align with the sentiments of the public and demonstrate a “harmonious blend of legal process with the cultural ethos of the nation”.
Mishra was also one of 600 lawyers who addressed a letter to the Chief Justice in May, expressing concern over the actions of certain interest groups allegedly undermining the judiciary’s integrity. Titled ‘Judiciary Under Threat – Safeguarding Judiciary from Political and Professional Pressure,’ the letter highlighted concerns over lawyers defending politicians by day and attempting to influence judges through media at night.
The letter, written close on the heels of significant Supreme Court verdicts, was posted on X by the PM who used it to attack the Congress, saying that “to browbeat and bully others is vintage Congress culture”.
Mishra has never been coy about his political leanings. In 2022, soon after the BJP won four assembly elections, he issued a press release in his capacity as BCI chairman congratulating Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. “These election results have proved that under the leadership of Honourable Narendra Modi ji and of Hon’ble Amit Shah ji, our India is completely safe and protected,” the press release said.
Mishra claimed there was a wave of happiness in the lawyer community and representatives of advocate associations from all corners of the country had sent a message of congratulations to the Prime Minister. The letter also said members of the BCI had actively participated during the election campaign in Goa, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
He has not spared his colleagues in his bid to defend Modi. In 2020, he criticised his colleague, senior advocate Dushyant Dave, for calling out the then sitting Supreme Court judge Arun Mishra in a newspaper article. Dave had raised concerns about Justice Mishra praising Modi at an international conference. Mishra dismissed Dave’s criticism as an example of a “myopic mindset”. According to him, Dave’s article was an “attempt to gain cheap publicity”.
Mishra went so far as to offer to campaign for Modi in his constituency during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Addressing a press conference in Varanasi, Mishra said he was “speaking in my capacity as a representative of 1.7 million lawyers across the country” and that he was “not expressing support for Modi on behalf of the Bar Council of India, which is a statutory body and cannot take a political stand”.
Controversial views
As BCI chairman, Mishra has consistently taken a pro-judiciary stand. However, some of his views have been highly controversial. For instance, he extended his support to the then Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi, when he faced sexual harassment charges in 2019. The BCI issued a statement at the time, inviting lawyers to participate in a ‘Men Too Movement’ along the lines of the Me Too movement for women. The open letter asked the legal fraternity to show “solidarity” with the then CJI and advocated a reform in sexual violence laws to make them men-friendly.
Speaking to ThePrint then, Mishra said statements of rape, sexual abuse victims shouldn’t be taken at face value and should be examined more cautiously.
At the Diamond Jubilee ceremony of the Supreme Court in January, Mishra spoke against lawyers who questioned the case-marking system practiced in the top court. He argued that listing of cases is the prerogative of the CJI and is an internal matter that lawyers should not question.
His public remarks followed a BCI letter to the Chief Justice of India in December 2023 voicing its concerns about an open letter complaining against the listing of sensitive cases pending before the top court. The BCI said this was an attempt to create “undue influence” and get “favourable” decisions.
Both the BCI’s letter and Mishra’s speech were an apparent snub to senior advocate Dave who wrote about out-of-turn marking of some politically sensitive cases registered by the Enforcement Directorate against opposition leaders to a specific bench headed by a judge from Gujarat.
Mishra had also signed a BCI letter that slammed former Supreme Court judge Justice J. Chelameswar for holding a press conference along with four other senior top court judges against the then Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra. The letter, written three days after the former judge demitted office in June 2018, condemned Justice Chelameswar for taking the unprecedented step and damaging the institution.
Two months before this, the BCI had released a statement that sought the debarment of lawyer-MPs from appearing before judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts, whose impeachment they sought. The regulatory body passed a resolution at a time when senior lawyers and parliamentarians – Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, K.T.S. Tulsi and Majid Memon – contemplated moving an impeachment motion against Chief Justice Misra.
The only time Mishra opposed a Modi government decision was when the latter proposed folding the regulation of legal education into the Union Ministry of Human Resources instead of the BCI. A joint letter signed by Mishra and co-chairman Sharma warned the government against the proposal or risk national lawyer strikes, paralysing the legal system. The opposition forced the government to drop the plan.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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