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 backlash and threats of protests.The Bar Council of India on Thursday 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 had backed the request.Following the Bar Council’s order, 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.CJP spokesman Saurav Das said the order was “grossly disproportionate, deeply troubling, and prima facie indefensible.” He threatened that law students, advocates, senior lawyers, and “well-meaning young cockroaches” will stage a nationwide protest if Mishra doesn’t withdraw the order.Soon after, Mishra reversed course.“After considering the representations and reactions of senior advocates, learned members of the Bar, law students and public spirited citizens, and being satisfied that the 2026 batch of NALSAR, Hyderabad, had no role in any disturbance or movement, the Bar Council of India has decided to close the proceedings altogether,” Mishra wrote on X Friday. “No further action is required.”It’s unclear whether the Bar Council’s reversal was prompted by the CJP’s intervention alone. The order had also faced a broader backlash over what critics saw as collective punishment of the graduating class.The CJP, a youth-led movement, began as online satire after the cockroach remark by Kant in May and has since grown into a nationwide protest campaign over alleged failures in India’s education system. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com©2026 Bloomberg L.P.Published on August 14, 2026