It appears Manan Kumar Mishra, a Rajya Sabha member of the BJP, considers himself as a politician first and not an advocate heading the Bar Council of India, a statutory body. Only that would explain why he went overboard by directing State Bar Councils to not allow enrolment of the entire graduating batch of NALSAR University of Law after a section of students urged the university authorities to reconsider inviting the Chief Justice of India to the convocation ceremony.
Following a backlash, the chairperson beat a hasty retreat. When a revised order too did not help douse the fires, the order was finally withdrawn.
When the matter came up before the first bench of the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Surya himself took strong exception to the BCI’s patently disproportionate action and the bench passed an interim order that no punitive action shall be initiated. More importantly, in his oral remarks, the CJI said students have the right to protest peacefully and be heard. He even recalled his involvement in student activities while in college and went so far to urge the passing out NALSAR graduates to join the Supreme Court bar at the earliest, which, he said, would be a “befitting answer to all those who caused impediment in their career”.
With that, the immediate issue in question has thus been by and large satisfactorily resolved. However, the larger troubling question about the functioning of statutory and regulatory institutions in the country in the recent times continues to linger.
There has been persistent and valid criticism about the erosion of their autonomy and their degeneration into becoming the cat’s paw of the political dispensation. Like in the present instance, institutions have frequently been brazen in being partisan and openly undermined the institutional integrity. It was a systemic failure where none could question, criticise, or hold these authorities accountable. Nor could the judiciary stem the rot. The less said about the role of mainstream media as a watchdog the better. Of course, there have been honourable exceptions in both.
The counsel in the NALSAR case flagged the “functioning of the Bar Council itself” as a “serious issue”. Instead of acting as the head of a statutory body, Mishra was using the office to further the political narrative by besmirching the conscientious and idealistic youth. It is obvious that he failed to read the room, the change in political mood and atmosphere. The BCI chief thought he could get away with it. He would have even a few months back – that is, before the Gen Z protests led by the Cockroach Janta Party and their dismantling of the politics of fear through satirical irreverence.
No doubt, the times they are a-changin’. There is a perceptible shift, a discernible change in tune in certain quarters and indications are that it is likely to spread. It would be difficult to predict which way things would go in the future. Will statutory and constitutional institutions return to being autonomous? Will that, in turn, lead to a beginning of restoration of checks and balances? Will the judiciary act as an effective guardian of people’s rights and rein in the executive and political establishment to stay within constitutional boundaries? Much depends on the next moves of the BJP and its government.