'Bar Council Not Earning Members’ Respect Is A Bad Sign': Justice BV Nagarathna

Supreme Court Justice BV Nagarathna on Saturday said Bar Councils must introspect on whether they are upholding professional ethics, morality and competence, warning that a council failing to command the respect of its own members is a troubling sign for the legal profession.

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Addressing the 13th convocation of National Law University, Delhi, on August 29, Justice Nagarathna also called on the Bar to speak in one voice as India's justice system grapples with pendency, delays, rising costs and uncertainty. Delhi High Court Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya, the university's Chancellor, Delhi High Court judges and Vice-Chancellor Prof GS Bajpai were among those present, Live Law and Bar & Bench report.

Respect must be earned

“The Bar Councils, whether the Central or the States, must introspect on their role and importance in upholding professional ethics, morality and professional competence. When a Bar Council does not earn the respect of its members, it is not a good sign for the legal profession,” Justice Nagarathna said.

Her remarks come weeks after controversy involving Bar Council of India (BCI) Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra. Mishra had directed state bar councils not to enrol NALSAR's graduating 2026 batch as advocates after students objected to the invitation extended to Chief Justice of India Surya Kant for their convocation.

The episode drew criticism from sections of the legal community. Demands for Mishra's resignation followed, while petitions were filed in the Supreme Court challenging his tenure and seeking scrutiny of the Bar Council's functioning. Against this backdrop, Justice Nagarathna's call for introspection carries particular weight, placing professional credibility and the confidence of lawyers themselves at the centre of the debate.

She said the Bar must rethink its usefulness to litigants, its role in protecting democracy and its responsibility to uphold the majesty of courts, justice and the rule of law. With the justice system struggling with delays, costs and uncertainty, her message was clear: lawyers cannot remain spectators to problems that affect the institutions in which they practise.

Independence comes with responsibility

Justice Nagarathna stressed that the independence of the Bar was not a privilege created for the personal benefit of lawyers but an essential requirement of a constitutional democracy.

“The independence of the Bar is not an entitlement given to lawyers for their own benefit. It exists because a constitutional democracy requires a body of professionals who can advise, argue, challenge and represent without having to ask the permission of the State, the market, or even their own clients before doing so,” she said.

Calling lawyers the “safety valves of democracies”, she urged them not to allow the pursuit of successful careers to overshadow the values that make the profession worth preserving. “Guard its independence. Earn its trust,” she said.

Justice Nagarathna recalled the role played by members of the legal profession in India's national movement and in the making of the Constitution. She said both individual lawyers and the Bar collectively must introspect on their duties towards distressed litigants and the task of sustaining democracy.

“The lawyers of this country are the torch bearers of the values of our Constitution,” she said, warning that lapses or errors by the Bar could have a deep impact on India's political and civic life.

Law is an office of trust

Justice Nagarathna urged lawyers to change their mindset and work for clients as a public service, stressing that the legal profession was not merely an occupation or trade but an “office of trust”. A lawyer, she said, could not simply be reduced to someone selling legal knowledge by the hour.

She told the graduating students that a lawyer's responsibility did not end with the terms of an engagement or the instructions received from a client. There could be occasions when lawyers would have to tell clients that their proposed course of action was unwise or legally untenable, or was neither in their interests nor those of the rule of law.

Lawyers act for individual clients but work within institutions belonging to the public, she said. Their responsibility therefore runs in two directions: towards the person who has entrusted them with a cause and towards the institution in which they pursue it.

That distinction is especially important at a time when the profession is becoming increasingly competitive. Justice Nagarathna said technology would change legal work, making routine research and drafting faster and information cheaper. As a result, simply knowing information would become less valuable, while sound judgment would remain indispensable.

Judgment will matter more

Justice Nagarathna advised young lawyers to understand disputes as a whole instead of focusing only on the legal proposition involved. They should be able to judge whether a dispute needs litigation, whether parties should negotiate before filing a suit, what can be conceded without hurting a client's interests, what the other side wants and when to push or stop pushing.

She also urged young lawyers to learn negotiation, draft settlements and understand how arbitral proceedings work in practice instead of merely memorising statutory provisions. Sitting in on mediations and observing experienced lawyers negotiate, including what they choose to say and leave unsaid, could also be valuable, she said.

Her emphasis on judgment reflects a wider challenge facing young lawyers: as technology makes information easier to obtain, professional value will increasingly depend on what lawyers do with that information rather than how much they can recall.

Don't fall prey to AI hallucinations

Justice Nagarathna also had a specific warning about the use of artificial intelligence in legal practice, cautioning lawyers against citing judgments generated by AI without verifying whether they are genuine.

“If arguing before a Court of Law, ensure that fake judgments obtained through AI are not cited. Don't fall prey to hallucination,” she said.

The warning underlined the risks accompanying the growing use of technology in legal work. While AI can make research and drafting quicker, Justice Nagarathna's remarks placed responsibility for accuracy firmly on the lawyer using the technology.

Look beyond litigation

Justice Nagarathna also stressed the growing importance of alternative dispute resolution (ADR), noting a discernible shift from traditional litigation towards alternative mechanisms. Litigation, she said, remained authoritative and courts continued to be the cornerstone of the justice system, but the process faced procedural complexity, delays, costs and an inherently adversarial character.

Arbitration, mediation and conciliation were consequently becoming increasingly important components of the justice system. Lawyers, she said, must understand not only what these mechanisms are but also when they are useful.

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She highlighted the importance of timing in mediation and referred to proceedings pending before the Tribunal under the Companies Act, particularly disputes arising from a breakdown of trust or ego clashes, including majority-minority shareholder disputes.

Justice Nagarathna also referred to the Arb-Med-Arb model. Under this approach, arbitration can first be commenced to establish jurisdiction and procedural certainty before proceedings are paused for mediation. If mediation succeeds, the settlement can be recorded through the arbitral process. If it fails, arbitration resumes and ultimately produces a binding decision.

The larger lesson from her address was that the modern lawyer cannot depend on legal knowledge alone. The profession increasingly needs lawyers who can exercise judgment, negotiate effectively, use technology responsibly and find practical solutions to disputes while protecting the institutions they serve.

Justice Nagarathna told the graduating students that they were leaving NLU Delhi as “Officers of the Court and Stewards of the Constitution”, urging them to put their knowledge and judgment at the service of the rule of law.

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