Published Aug 14, 2026 | 10:02 AM ⚊ Updated Aug 14, 2026 | 10:15 AM
BCI chairman Manan Kumar Mishra, CJI of India Surya Kant and CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke.
Synopsis: The BCI issued the order after a section of students graduating this year opposed the institute’s move to have the Chief Justice of India Surya Kant as the chief guest of its convocation ceremony.
The Bar Council of India (BCI) has backtracked on a directive that restrained all state Bar Councils from enrolling any student graduating this year from the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR) following reports of the fresh graduates opposing the institute having the Chief Justice of India, Surya Kant, as the chief guest of the convocation ceremony.
The BCI’s withdrawal of its order has been seen as yet another win — albeit accidental — for the Cockroach Janta Party.
The students opposed the CJI’s presence in protest against his “cockroach” remark aimed at unemployed youth, which led to a youth uprising that humbled the Narendra Modi-led government in July.
CJI Kant later clarified that his remark was aimed at those with fake degrees in the legal profession.
Earlier on Thursday, BCI president and a BJP member in the Rajya Sabha Manan Kumar Mishra issued an order directing all state bar councils not to enrol any student of the 2026 graduating batch as an advocate.
“Till further orders, no student of NALSAR University of Law, who has obtained the Law Degree in the year 2026, shall be enrolled by any State Bar Council as an Advocate,” Mishra said in his order.
Faced with a nationwide backlash, the BCI backtracked within hours. “What if all legal cockroaches come together?” the Cockroach Janta Party Abhijeet Dipke posed on X, a comment reminiscent of his 16 May post that brought Gen Zs to Jantar Mantar in protest against NEET paper leak, which led to the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Investigative journalist and Cockroach Janta Party spokesperson Saurav Das, in a post on X, questioned the grounds on which the Bar Council had issued the direction.
“Students of NALSAR have displayed democratic dissent against a person they, in their own wisdom, thought was unfit to give them their hard-earned degrees. Who are you to intervene? Your accountability needs to be talked about too. Tell us why, as the statutory regulator (BCI) responsible for supervising State Bar Councils, you permitted elected bodies to continue BEYOND their terms until the Supreme Court intervened? Who were these people that were favoured as a result of this? Tell us now,” he wrote in a post on X.
“And why and how have you been holding the post of Chairman since 2012 to now till 2030? Do tell us about your track record. Tell us why you illegally intervened in the 2026 Chhattisgarh State Bar Council, as stated by the High Court there? Law students and advocates in Delhi and across the country will rise up in protest against you and in support of the students of NALSAR if you don’t WITHDRAW this disgusting notification IMMEDIATELY and apologise for your conduct. Your conduct and tenure as the BCI Chairman (while being BJP RS MP) needs to be accounted for.”
Several members of the legal fraternity, too, criticised Mishra.
Karam Komireddy, a lawyer practising in the Telangana High Court, said the BCI had no legal basis to prevent the 2026 NALSAR graduates from enrolling as advocates.
“It is not permissible at all. How can you deny these students enrolment? People go to NALSAR or any other educational institution to study a particular course with the expectation that, on completing it, they will be able to enrol themselves as lawyers or practise their profession. I don’t think any statutory authority, whether the Bar Council of India or any equivalent regulatory body, has the right to preemptively prevent them from enrolling. This is an absolute joke,” he said.
Komireddy said the students had only registered their protest against the invitation to the CJI and had exercised their right to decide whether to attend the convocation.
“The students have only registered their protest. They have written to the dean and registrar saying that, for certain reasons, they do not wish to attend the convocation. The Chief Justice is traditionally invited to NALSAR’s convocation every year, where they address the students and award degrees. The students have exercised their democratic right to protest. What is wrong with that?” he said.
“You and I may disagree with their protest. We may say that the Chief Justice should attend the convocation. But you cannot say that merely because students have spoken out, they should face consequences. Are you trying to pass some kind of diktat or send shivers down people’s spines so that they do not speak out in the future? This is an absolute joke and a mockery.”
Regarding the BCI’s role and the order’s impact on students, Komireddy said the regulator could not act to the detriment of students to please the judiciary.
“If the Bar Council wants to be in the good books of the judges, that is its choice, but it cannot do so at the expense of students. If you want to please the judiciary, good luck to you, but not at the expense of students,” he said.
Following the backlash, Mishra modified his initial order.
“The Bar Council of India does not, at this stage, record that any person stands disqualified from enrolment under Section 24A merely on account of participation in the aforesaid representation or campaign.”
However, it added that, while the BCI was examining any particular applicant with the possibility of “regulatory considerations governing entry into the profession”, enrolling graduates “during pendency of such examination may create a fait accompli and render the statutory examination ineffective”.
“All the students will be entitled to get enrolled with the State Bar Councils of their choice,” the second order said.
According to the rules, a lawyer can be enrolled to practice law after graduating in law and passing the All India Bar Examination, held twice a year.
Also Read:
NALSAR students’ no to Chief Justice Surya Kant: Not disrespect, but a necessary assertion!
(Edited by Majnu Babu.)
