- Co-chairman YR Sadasiva Reddy demanded BCI chairman Manan Kumar Mishra's resignation
- Reddy accused Mishra of treating BCI as personal estate and financial irregularities
- Allegations include misuse of funds, nepotism and forcing law colleges to pay large fees
The co-chairman of the Bar Council of India (BCI) has demanded the immediate resignation of the statutory body's chairman Manan Kumar Mishra over allegations of financial irregularities and other charges.
BCI co-chairman and senior lawyer YR Sadasiva Reddy made the demand for resignation in a letter to the chairman, alleging eight points including the irregularities charge.
Reddy said he wrote it with "considerable anguish," noting that "silence on my part would amount to a dereliction of the trust reposed in me by the advocates of this country".
He alleged Mishra has been treating the statutory body like a personal estate rather than a public trust. Reddy also alleged the Bar Council of India Trust was deliberately let to become defunct and a new trust called 'BCI Trust PEARL First' was registered in September 2020 with trustees chosen by Mishra.
"Thereafter, a resolution was moved in this Council for the transfer of a sum of the order of Rs 150 crore of the funds of the Bar Council of India to that newly created trust," Reddy alleged in the letter, adding that objections from him and other members were overridden.
The BCI co-chairman said law colleges have been forced to pay large sums for BCI approval or renewal. He said a regulator receiving money from the entities it regulates "has destroyed the very foundation of its own authority".
He alleged blatant nepotism in hiring practices across the council and its educational institutions. "A striking proportion of the staff are persons connected to you personally, several of them being members of, or related to, your own family," Reddy said in the letter, adding that not a single advertisement or merit list was placed before the council to justify these staff appointments.
The letter comes amid the filing of a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the continuation of Mishra as BCI chairman, alleging that his tenure has continued for more than a decade in violation of the governing rules. The petition filed by lawyer Yogamaya MG questioned the legality of Mishra's uninterrupted tenure and cited BCI rules that prescribe a two-year limit for the chairman's term.
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