BCI Chief Manan Kumar Mishra Faces Lawyers' Backlash Over Remarks Against Student Protests

Senior Advocate Manan Kumar Mishra, the Chairperson of the Bar Council of India, and a BJP Rajya Sabha MP, is facing severe backlash from the legal community for his statements targeting the student protests in Delhi. 

In a statement issued on the letterhead of the BCI Chairperson, Mishra alleged that anti-nationals have entered the "so-called student protests", and that their aim was to destabilise India. He also alleged that huge foreign funds have been sourced for the protests, and media campaigns have been orchestrated at the behest of Pakistan, China, Bangladesh and other countries. Notably, Mishra did not cite any evidence to back up his claims, which bordered on a shrill rhetoric denouncing and dehumanising the student movement.

Several lawyers, criticising Mishra on social media, asked why he was using the BCI letterhead to express his personal opinions, and wondered if it was an attempt to pass them off as the views of the Council itself. The question which the legal fraternity is asking is whether he should use his position as the BCI Chairperson to ventilate his political views.

Lawyers, including young members of the bar, as reflected in the comments on X, Instagram and other social media, expressed disappointment with Mishra's comments, and distanced themselves from such views. Many called out Mishra for branding the protests "anti-nationals", reminding him of the basic Constitutional lesson that patriotism is not synonymous with uncritical adulation of the elected government and that the country was much bigger than the political executive.

Here are some of the responses :

'His statements affront to any right-thinking citizen' : Senior Advocate Rebecca M John

Mr Manan Kumar Mishra, the near-permanent president of the Bar Council of India, has released a statement that cannot be endorsed by any right-thinking member of the Bar. The students' protest is powered by young students who have faced the horrors of a broken education system. Their peaceful march to Parliament on July 20th led to terrible police violence, and they are now only seeking accountability from their Government. Instead of standing up for the rule of law and the Constitution of India and demanding accountability that every lawyer is expected to do, Mr Mishra makes wild and uncorroborated allegations against the protesting students. His statement is an affront to all right-thinking citizens of India.

'Improper to use BCI office' : Sr Adv Anjana Prakash (former Patna HC Judge) :

Mr Manan Kumar Mishra as a citizen of India, and in various capacities, like the rest of us, has a right to hold views on all kinds of matters, including the present situation about which he has issued a statement and an advisory for whatever it is worth. But in my view, it was not proper for him to have used his position as Chairman of the Bar Council to do so because the office he holds today is in trust of the public and does not personally belong to him.

However, of late, unfortunately, we have seen so many such instances when public functionaries have usurped their offices and, in doing so, diminished its dignity.

'Falsehoods and hyperbole' : Adv Vrinda Grover

Not surprisingly, Mr. Misra's statement follows a stale script which is littered with falsehoods and hyperbole. He is free to exercise his Article 19 (1)a freedom, but not while wearing the robes of a senior Advocate and as chairman of the Bar Council of India. He is once again misusing the Office of BCI Chairman to be a mouthpiece of the BJP with which he is affiliated and spread political propaganda. The communication also makes it stark that he does not believe in the principles and values of democracy integral to which are the right to protest, dissent and seek accountability from the government.

'Can't use BCI post for personal views' : Senior Advocate Naveen R Nath :

BCI is a statutory body. It exercises power as a Quasi-Judicial Tribunal and a forum for Appeals. It is unprecedented for such a body to be taking a purely political stand under its official seal and stationery. One also wonders about the propriety of the head of the Council issuing such personal views without the authority of any resolution of the Full Council.

'No authority to speak for Bar' : Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan :

I believe Manan Mishra has no authority to speak on behalf of the Bar. He heads the Bar Council and not a Bar Association. He has not been authorised to speak on behalf of lawyers and he speaks in his personal capacity. I am curious what he has to say about members of the Bar being roughed up at Lodhi Road police station and beaten up by the police at Nizamuddin police station.

'Not representative opinion of the Bar' : Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde :

If you wear two hats, you sometimes speak in two tongues. Manan Mishra, the Rajya Sabha Member of the BJP from Bihar, is entitled to his political views on the student protests. However he should not be using his temporary perch as Chairman of BCI to speak on matters outside the Bar Council's normal remit and certainly not without authorisation from other members of the Bar Council. His view is his personal political view, which may not be representative of the opinion of the Bar as a whole.

'Quid pro quo' : Senior Advocate Vikas Singh, SCBA President

Mr Manan Kumar Mishra's statement is a quid pro quo for his Rajya Sabha seat.

'Beyond disgust' : Senior Advocate Sanjay Ghose

The Bar Council Chairman cannot issue any statement of policy on his letterhead unless the same is pursuant to a resolution!  The repeated misuse of his platform and speaking on openly partisan issues and passing it off as if that is the collective view of the Indian Bar is beyond disgust.

'Improper' : Senior Advocate Mohan Katarki

 Mishram who has been wearing two hats, must know when and where to don which hat. His political statement as Chairman of BCI is improper.  His statement that anti nationals have hijacked protest against NEET leak stems from the divisive narrative that only 37% of Indians who voted for his party, the RSS-BJP, are nationals and the rest of 63% who didn't vote for his party are “anti-nationals”. This is also a part of typical WhatsApp narrative. If there is any evidence of funding, he should ask Govt of his party to initiate action under the law. Has he done?

Advocate Devvrat, SCAORA President

The Bar Council of India is a statutory body, and Section 7 of the Advocates Act, 1961 confines its functions to professional standards, discipline, legal education and the interests of advocates. Nothing in the Act empowers its Chairman to use the Council's letterhead to allege, without any supporting material, that the student protests have been hijacked by anti-nationals, financed by George Soros, or instigated by politicians with 'foreign blood flowing in their veins'. A press release issued over the Council's seal will be read as the position of a regulator holding compulsory jurisdiction over advocates of every political persuasion. The release also says nothing about the force used by the Delhi Police and the CAPF against protesting students, which several bar associations have questioned, though that is the one question on which the Bar's institutional voice would have carried real weight. The Council should now either adopt the release by resolution or clarify that its Chairman wrote in his personal capacity.

Senior Advocate Saurabh Kirpal said on social media, "Manan Mishra does NOT represent lawyers. He ought not to use the Bar Council letterhead for his personal views, objectionable as they usually are."

"Bar Council of India is not supposed to be the personal fiefdom of Manan Misra," said Senior Advocate Arundhati Katju.

The prevailing sentiment among lawyers reacting on social media was that Mishra's statement did not represent the views of the legal fraternity and that the Bar Council of India ought not to be used to advance what they perceived as a political position. Many lawyers publicly distanced themselves from the statement and criticised the use of the BCI's official letterhead for issuing it.  

In contrast with the stand of the BCI Chairman, several major bar bodies, including the Supreme Court Bar Association, the Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association, the Bombay Bar Association, and several other lawyers, have condemned the use of police violence against student protesters. The Supreme Court Bar Association President, Senior Advocate Vikas Singh, separately wrote to the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister seeking action against the officials who used excessive force against the students, and demanding the suspension of the Delhi Police Commissioner.

Earlier instances  

Notably, this is not the first instance of Manan Kumar Mishra making controversial and divisive statements concerning social issues. He had in the past issued statements supporting Ex-CJI Ranjan Gogoi in the sexual harassment case. Several women lawyers took strong objection to Mishra's comments then. When Gogoi was subsequently nominated to the Rajya Sabha, Mishra came in his support.

While the country was caught up in raging protests against the CAA, Mr Mishra, affirming his political commitment to the ruling party at the Centre, condescendingly said that the protests were carried out by "illiterate ignorant mass" who were being "misled''.  In fact, a BCI member came out openly against the Chairman for unilaterally issuing a statement in support of the CAA, when the issue was highly contentious.