Senior Advocate and Bar Council of India (BCI) Member-cum-Co-Chairman Y.R. Sadashiva Reddy has demanded the immediate resignation of BCI Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra and sought an independent inquiry into matters concerning the functioning of the Council.
In a letter dated August 22, 2026, addressed to the BCI Chairman, he said he was making the demand not as an adversary but as an elected member of the BCI and a member of the profession for over three decades.
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“I address this communication to you not as an adversary, but as an elected Member of the Bar Council of India, presently holding the office of Co-Chairman, and as a member of this profession for three decades. I do so with considerable anguish, and only after long reflection, having satisfied myself that silence on my part would amount to a dereliction of the trust reposed in me by the advocates of this country.”
Reddy asserted that the BCI is a statutory body constituted under the Advocates Act, 1961, and that its funds are contributed by advocates and are intended to serve the profession. He alleged that, during Mishra’s chairmanship, the Council had “drifted very far from that standard”, and said the grounds for his demand were based on matters he had personally witnessed in Council meetings.
One of the principal grounds raised in the letter concerns appointments to establishments of the BCI. Reddy alleged that appointments were being made without a transparent process of recruitment, and questioned the absence of advertisements, scrutiny of qualifications, selection committees and comparative merit lists.
He stated that, after examining the list of persons presently employed by the Council, he found no discernible process of recruitment, alleging that several employees had been brought in based on personal or familial connections. The letter specifically raises concerns over the absence of a single advertisement, selection committee proceeding or comparative merit list justifying such appointments.
Reddy has called upon Mishra to take several steps, including:
● Resign from the office of Chairman, BCI, immediately and in any event within 15 days of the letter;
● Convene a Special Meeting of the BCI to consider the matters raised in the communication, with relevant records placed before members in advance;
● Direct a special audit of the accounts of the BCI and BCI Trust PEARL-I, from the date of its registration, by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, with the report circulated to every BCI member and published;
● Direct that, with immediate effect, no contribution, donation or expenditure of any description be received from or made to any law college, university or management by the Council or any trust/body connected with it; and
● Publish on the Council’s website the complete staff position referred to in his allegations.
Reddy further said that his demand was not motivated by personal animosity and emphasised that he had worked alongside Mishra on the Council.
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“I hold no personal animosity towards you. I have served alongside you on this Council for a decade. It is precisely because I have watched this institution from within for that period that I am able to say, with a clear conscience, that it will not recover while you remain in the Chair. There are able persons in this Council capable of restoring it. Standing down now, of your own accord, is the one course still open to you that would be to your credit.”
The letter concludes with Reddy stating that the “Bar of this country deserves better than what it is presently receiving from its own Council.”