Bar Council of India chairman faces renewed pressure as co-chairman seeks resignation
Pressure on Bar Council of India chairman Manan Kumar Mishra sharpened on Saturday after a BCI member formally asked him to resign at a physical
Pressure on Bar Council of India chairman Manan Kumar Mishra sharpened on Saturday after a BCI member formally asked him to resign at a physical meeting of the council’s General Council in New Delhi. The demand, backed by another member, added a fresh public challenge to his long tenure at the top of India’s legal regulator.
BCI member Manoj Kumar Narendran, who represents Kerala, raised the issue directly before the council at its office in the capital. Srinath Tripathi, an advocate from Uttar Pradesh and another BCI member, supported the call. Narendran later told The Hindu that Mishra did not accept the demand and that the next step would be decided later.
Resignation demand lands in open session
The request was not floated quietly. It came up during an in-person General Council meeting, putting the question of leadership squarely before the body that oversees the council’s work. That matters because the BCI sits at the centre of India’s legal profession, with influence over the regulation of lawyers and the tone of institutional debate.
Narendran said the council’s functioning had increasingly come to be seen as shaped by the chairman’s authority and decisions rather than by the collective will of the General Council. That critique goes to the heart of the current dispute: who sets the agenda, and how much room the broader council has to check its own leadership.
Questions over prolonged tenure
The pressure on Mishra comes amid growing unease over how long he has held the post. The specific grounds behind the latest demand were not fully detailed in the source material, but the challenge itself signals that internal impatience has spilled into the open. For a body that plays a central role in India’s legal system, such public friction can carry weight beyond the room where it is aired.
For now, Mishra has not agreed to step aside. Narendran said the council would decide the next course of action later, leaving the issue unresolved at the end of the meeting. “Of particular co…” Narendran told The Hindu, cutting off as the matter remained unfinished on Saturday evening in New Delhi.
