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The Bar Council of India on Thursday withdrew an order directing state bar councils to defer the enrolment of any student of the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research graduating in 2026 who opposed the participation of Chief Justice Surya Kant at the university’s convocation.
However, the council has said that an inquiry into those who were “principally instrumental” in a campaign against the chief justice’s participation would continue.
Political campaign Cockroach Janta Party had described the directive as “grossly disproportionate” and had warned of protests by law students and advocates if it was not taken back.
Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the Cockroach Janta Party, asked, “What if all legal cockroaches come together?”
Condemning the order, CJP Spokesperson Saurav Das said that students cannot be “collectively penalised for expressing dissent over a ceremonial invitation”.
Das had warned of a protest outside Bar Council’s office and Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra’s official residence by law students, advocates, senior lawyers, and “well-meaning young cockroaches”, if the order was not withdrawn.
NALSAR has extended an invitation to the CJI for the upcoming convocation despite students urging the university to reconsider the decision, citing Kant’s response to a petition alleging that police had used excessive force against protesters in Delhi on July 20.
In a communication addressed to state bar councils and NALSAR Vice-Chancellor Srikrishna Deva Rao, Mishra has asked the university to submit a factual report within three days about the persons involved in mobilising the “organised campaign” against the CJI’s participation.
Mishra has asked the vice-chancellor to include in the report a complete copy of the “representation, petition, memorandum or other communication submitted to the university by the students. He has also asked for the full list of the signatories to the representations.
The BCI has further asked the university to separately identify those who were involved in initiating the “campaign” through press, social media or mobilising any “call for boycott, obstruction, disruption or organised non-participation in the convocation” or any other programme connected with the CJI.
“As per some reliable sources, there exists groupism and dirty politics among some of the academic staff”, the circular read. It further alleged that the staff have played very “active role in misleading, instigating and misguiding the students”.
“The teachers, instead of involving themselves in their teaching job, are doing nasty politics in the campus,” it added. Bar Council of India, being the regulator of Legal Education cannot be a mute spectator of such a serious situation.”
On July 22, a bench headed by the chief justice refused to urgently hear a petition about police excesses against protesters. “Don’t waste our time and don’t waste your time,” Kant had reportedly told the petitioners.
When the lawyer for the petitioners said that he could present video evidence of the police excesses, the chief justice had said the bench was “not interested” in watching them.
Referring to the remarks, the students had told the university authorities that it did not sit right to receive their degrees from a dignitary whose recent public conduct appeared dismissive of serious allegations of police brutality against protesting citizens.
Written by Anamika Pathak. Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.
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