By The Straits Times | Created at 2026-08-14 01:11:57 | Updated at 2026-08-14 01:48:18
42 minutes ago
NEW DELHI – India’s national regulator for lawyers reversed an order barring an entire graduating class at one of the country’s leading law schools from enrolling as advocates, hours after the move triggered threats of protests from a fast-growing youth movement.
The Bar Council of India on Aug 13 ordered that no 2026 graduate of NALSAR University of Law in Hyderabad be enrolled as an advocate until further notice.
The initial directive was issued by its chairman, Manan Kumar Mishra, a senior lawyer who is also a member of India’s Upper House of Parliament from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.
Mishra also sought a report identifying those behind a student campaign opposing Chief Justice of India Surya Kant’s participation in the university’s convocation.
Students asked NALSAR to reconsider inviting Kant, citing remarks in July while he heard a petition alleging police excesses against demonstrators in New Delhi.
When a lawyer offered video evidence, Kant said the court was “not interested” in watching it and told the petitioners not to waste the court’s time.
About 450 students backed the request.
In response, Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the Cockroach Janta Party, wrote on X: “What if all legal cockroaches come together?”
The post echoed the language that gave birth to the CJP, which turned Kant’s comparison of some unemployed young people to cockroaches into a badge of defiance.
The protest movement later won concessions from the government, including the resignation of then Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Hours later, the council reversed course, allowing NALSAR’s 2026 graduates to enroll.
The episode marks another intervention by the CJP, a youth-led movement that began as online satire after the cockroach remark by Kant in May.
The CJP later grew into a nationwide protest campaign over examination leaks and alleged failures in India’s education system. BLOOMBERG
