New Delhi: The Supreme Court has issued notice on a plea against the Bar Council of India’s (BCI) direction to its state units on suspending enrolment of graduates from the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research University of Law (NALSAR) in Hyderabad, simultaneously ordering that no punitive action shall be taken against the students.
The BCI, India’s apex regulatory body for the legal profession, had Wednesday directed all of its state units to suspend enrolment of NALSAR graduates until an investigation into a campaign by students opposing the participation of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) in the university’s convocation was complete. The backlash that followed prompted a withdrawal of the order the same evening.
“BCI is unnecessarily taking action. They have the right to protest. Students might have written a letter to me. It’s a dialogue between students and me. Who are they (BCI) to unnecessarily raise an issue? This is totally uncalled for. BCI has nothing to do with this?” Chief Justice Surya Kant said on Friday in response to an oral mention by senior advocate K. Parameshwar of a petition against the BCI order. Noting that the order was “uncalled for” and that protests by students can’t be stopped, the CJI said: “Sometimes in young age, if someone makes a statement that is maybe wrong, let them be wrong.”
“I myself, during student days, was involved in student activities. Peacefully they are raising voice, they should be allowed. Even if they are wrong, assuming, they have the right to protest. Who can stop them? So long as they are lawfully and peacefully raising a voice, they must be heard. Why Bar Council or any other body should interfere?” he said.
“Tell the students, get the licence at the earliest. Join the Supreme Court bar. We will empanel them for legal aid cases, and let them do legal aid. This will be the befitting answer to all those who caused impediment in their career,” the CJI concluded.
In mentioning the petition, Parameshwar said that the BCI has no business speaking about what is going on in a university.
Mihira Sood, a 2007 alumna of NALSAR practising at the Supreme Court and Delhi High Court, is the first petitioner in that plea. Second petitioner Abhishek Tewari is a 2004 alumnus of NALSAR, and has been practising law for 22 years in Delhi. Their petition questions the BCI directive on issues of jurisdiction and Fundamental Rights, describing it as “manifestly arbitrary”. “The impugned letters have been issued despite no statutory foundation for the exercise of such powers of pre-emptive disqualification from enrolment beyond Section 24-A of the Advocates Act, 1961 by Respondent No. 1 (BCI)and no powers for conduct of a roving enquiry into constitutionally permissible conduct relating to internal affairs of the Respondent No. 2 (NALSAR University),” the petition says.
Back and forth
Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman and Bharatiya Janata Party parliamentarian Manan Mishra’s six-page order of Wednesday to suspend the enrolment of 2026 graduates from NALSAR Hyderabad, pending an investigation into an organised campaign opposing the participation of CJI Surya Kant at the university’s convocation, now stands completely withdrawn.
Tweeting in the early hours of Friday, Mishra said that the BCI has decided “to close the proceedings altogether. No further action is required,” he said, tagging the official handle of NALSAR.
Mishra said that his U-turn came after considering the representations and reactions of senior advocates, learned members of the Bar, law students and public spirited citizens, and being satisfied that the 2026 batch of NALSAR, Hyderabad, had no role in any disturbance or movement.
Wishing the students the very best for their careers, he offered a word of wisdom: “We take immense pride in our legal institutions, and the day you enroll, you become vanguards. Voice your opinions freely, but with respect and institutional decorum.”
“The highest judicial office is our collective pride. Dissent is welcome in a democracy; public ridicule of constitutional institutions is often counterproductive,” he added.
BCI sources said that the first letter directing suspension had drawn objections from senior members. BCI Vice-President Ved Prakash Sharma and Kerala representative N. Manoj Kumar were of the view that the NALSAR protest was a disciplinary issue, which only the university could look into. As a regulator, BCI has no authority to intervene with the university’s functioning, they said. On enrolment, the members said that the BCI has no jurisdiction, and that its role as a super-regulator kicks in only after the enrolment process is over.
It was after this that the council ‘modified’ the chairman’s order, saying that all students would be enrolled while the inquiry report was awaited. As of now, the report is not awaited either.
Before Mishra’s tweet retracting the inquiry, NALSAR Vice-Chancellor Srikrishna Deva Rao issued a press release, saying that given the nature of the request, the university would have to consider whether conducting such an inquiry would be “a constitutional exercise of its powers”.
“In order to assist the University, assess whether conducting such an inquiry would be constitutional and permissible under the University’s governance regulations, the matter will be placed before the Executive Council of the University (the Executive Council is the University highest decision-making body under the statute establishing the University)” it said, adding that once the process of consultation with the Executive Council is completed, the same would be communicated to the BCI.
The first order was issued after 450 outgoing students of the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR) were reported to have sent an email to the Vice-Chancellor, requesting that the CJI not be invited to their convocation. Their opposition stemmed from the Chief Justice of India’s refusal to grant an early hearing to a petition seeking a probe into alleged police excesses in Delhi during the protest march called by Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) on 20 July in the Capital.
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)