NEW DELHI: BCI's controversial decision to bar 2026 law graduates from Hyderabad's NALSAR University of Law from being registered as advocate, which it withdrew within hours, brought into focus the regulator's working which has been headed by senior advocate and BJP MP Manan Kumar Mishra for 14 years.A statutory body established under Advocates Act, 1961, BCI is mandated to regulate legal profession and legal education. It lays down standards of professional conduct for advocates, exercises disciplinary jurisdiction, and recognises universities whose law degrees qualify a person for enrolment. Section 7(1)(g) of the Act also gives it general supervision and control over state bar councils.But no provision of the Act gives it the power to enrol a person as an advocate which is to be done by a state bar council to admit persons as advocates on its roll.

Clearly, the regulator ventured into the area beyond its domain by taking punitive measures against students, and upset SC which observed that BCI had no business to intervene in the matter.The controversy has put the spotlight on BCI's functioning on whether it has over the years been able to discharge its statutory duty to maintain the standard of legal profession and legal education. Going by a statement of Mishra himself, BCI has failed in its duty by a massive margin.

An outspoken man who contested polls as nominees of BSP and Congress before drifting into BJP , has said on more than one occasion that 35-40% of advocates have fake degrees, and are practicing in the courts on the basis of fabricated degree certificates. The statement, while believed to be true by many, is an indictment of regulator and clear evidence that guard rails against serious malpractice have not been working.

Another failure of BCI is in the field of legal education as it failed to maintain standard in view of proliferation of law colleges; some of them are virtually selling law degrees with students exempted from attending classes. It has regularly faced SC's ire for not infusing professionalism into the profession and not taking action against erring lawyers who keep resorting to strikes.