NALSAR Row: Over 400 alumni condemn BCI over enrolment ban, inquiry order

Over 400 alumni of the NALSAR University of Law here on Friday criticised the Bar Council of India over its now-withdrawn order to conduct an inquiry and submit a report naming faculty and students who expressed their views on inviting the Chief Justice of India to this year's convocation. In an open letter to BCI chairperson Manan Kumar Mishra, they referred to the bar council's first letter on August 13 that barred NALSAR students graduating in 2026 from enrolling as advocates, and condemned the so called "attempt to persecute students and faculty" members of NALSAR.

Though the bar on enrolment and the demand for an inquiry and report were withdrawn in another letter, "the letters reflect a lack of empathy for students and their mental health, disregard for the fundamental right to free speech, and a tendency to deal with matters of young students and educated faculty in an arbitrary and high-handed manner," they alleged. The BCI had no jurisdiction to issue these letters, they said.

What is more disturbing is that the language of the first letter reflects a predisposition to dominate students and faculty with coercive threats that restrict speech on university campuses, putting tremendous pressure on the mental health of students, they claimed. According to the alumni, the emails sent by the students of NALSAR to their Vice Chancellor, raising objections over any proposal to invite CJI Surya Kant, was an internal matter of NALSAR . It was no occasion for a statutory body entrusted with regulating the profession and the standards of legal education to call for a "witch hunt of students and faculty", they said.

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The BCI has no role in regulating matters of free speech on university campuses, they said. The BCI letters signal as if the students and faculty were hatching a criminal conspiracy, the alumni claimed. If the BCI has an opinion on the present matter in NALSAR, it should approach it with the spirit of dialogue and discussion, not coercion and domination. That unfortunately only came as an afterthought, subsequent to the backlash against the letters issued by BCI, they said in the letter.

Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Friday sharply pulled up the BCI for its order that the 2026 graduates of NALSAR University of Law not be enrolled as advocates following their objections to inviting him as the Chief Guest for the institution's convocation. The BCI on Thursday directed all state bar councils not to enrol any 2026 graduate of NALSAR University of Law as an advocate until further orders and had sought a report identifying those responsible. However, within hours after an uproar on social media, the BCI reversed this order. A section of students of the premier law institute had in July written to the vice chancellor, registrar and professors of the institution, opposing any proposal to invite the CJI as chief guest to the varsity's convocation, the date of which is yet to be announced.