Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman Manan Mishra on Saturday lashed out against co-chairman and senior advocate Y.R. Sadashiva Reddy's over the latter's call for his resignation.
Reddy had demanded Mishra's resignation over alleged financial and administrative issues, in addition to claims of nepotism and the NALSAR enrolment controversy.
However, Mishra told reporters on Saturday that Reddy's allegations had "no value" and were "insignificant", because he had not raised these issues in the eight years that he had been a part of the BCI, and only did so after his exit from the State Bar Council.
"Manan Mishra is a man of honesty and integrity. As long as I have the support of the legal fraternity and the country's 2.5 million lawyers, people like Sadasiva Reddy will come and go and continue making such statements on social media," he told reporters, as per a PTI report.
Reddy, however, has claimed that the reason he did not raise the issues during his eight years was because he wanted to "safeguard the interests of the institution", and since he "did not not want to act against its ethos".
He has now called for Mishra to resign within 15 days, while also seeking an independent audit of BCI accounts, as well as the BCI Trust PEARL-First.
This comes after Reddy demanded in an August 22 letter Mishra resign and that an independent investigation be launched to probe the allegations. He also demanded that there be a special meeting of the BCI to consider the issues.
He had also earlier filed a petition in the Supreme Court, claiming that Mishra had been involved in the creation of the trust back in 2020, and that a resolution had also been moved to pull out ₹150 crore from the council's funds and put it into the trust.
Apart from allegations about law colleges seeking approval or renewal from the BCI had been asked to make contributions to the trust, Reddy had also alleged that the directive to exclude the 2026 graduating NALSAR batch from being enrolled was sent out before the matter was deliberated upon by the council.
Despite even pushback from the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) over the issues, Mishra remains firm on his refusal to resign, declaring that he "will remain president as long as the country's lawyers/voters want him to stay".
