The Bar Council of India (BCI) has been a victim of the “sinister game” of a “mischief doer” who forged the BCI’s ‘LIFT’ restrictions notice that went viral on Saturday, BCI chairman Manan Kumar Mishra told Legally India via email.

Twitter user @roshankar had apparently first tweeted a photograph of the notice. The notice, ostensibly dated 12 April 2016, stated that Mishra had ordered to deduct one day’s salary from BCI staff “below the rank of assistant secretary” and “sweepers or other outsourced employees” who were caught using lifts at the BCI’s Rouse Avenue office in Delhi. Outsiders “below 50 years of age” who were not “Learned Advocates & Hon’ble Judges” or ”not unwell or disabled”, “may be required to pay a sum of Rs. 50/- for use of lift”.

That tweet was retweeted 583 times and had 149 likes by the time Legally India reported it, and was covered by several mainstream online publications (see below). The original tweet now has more than 1,600 retweets and 500 likes.

However, Mishra has now told Legally India in an email said that the BCI was trying to save electricity and stop “misuse” of the elevator by “young” employees, but that he had never sanctioned any mention of “sweepers or outsiders” or imposing fines. He said that the “real notice” had “simply” requested employees to save energy and money.

He noted that the forged notice was created while most BCI members were away in Dehradun at an event.

We have reached out to @roshankar for comment on the origin of the original photo.

Mishra’s reply in full

Legally India had, on Saturday before publishing the story, emailed Mishra for a comment on the notice.

Mishra and other BCI members were in Dehradun over last weekend, on Saturday and Sunday, to host a two-day “Bar Council of India Seminar and Training Session for Lawyers and Law Students”.

He replied yesterday, at 11:41PM with (emphasis added by us):

Prachi, I’m really shocked to see a so called notice purported to have been pasted by BCI. People can go to that extent for m aligning the image of an Institution of Lawyers! The real notice which simply made a request to the employees of BCI to save energy & save money. BCI is an Institution run on the contribution of Advocates, it doesn’t get any monetary support from anywhere else . We were fade up with the huge electricity bill & misuse of lift by young employees . Even myself or other members seldom use d lift.That’s why I had given instructions to office to paste a notice to save energy . The notice which I had approved & which was pasted did not contain any thing about Sweepers or Outsiders or imposition of fine etc. I’m shocked to see this changed notice. It’s a totally manupulated, manufactured & created copy by some people grudge or malice against BCI. An Institution like BCI can’t even think of such things about any human being. Sweepers or any employee,every body deserves same respect. In fact most of d office staff & members were at Dehradun for a 2 days Seminar & training program.Some one got a chance to get a forged notice misusing xerox copy of sign.of Secy. Or jt.secy.! It’s a serious matter ,needs inquiry. The Council will do it. But I’m thankful to you that u pointed it firstly. The enemies of BCI know that Legally India will highlight it with all prominence,though it may be a petty , negligible matter . But the mischief doer informed you immediately after creating the false & forged notice. And he has succeeded in his sinister game . You also made it viral without even waiting for my comments. Anyway, the false notice is no more on the board. Before we could hold enquiry,it has been removed . I’m thankful to you for compelling d guilty to remove the notice in question . Again thanks. BCI does many good , revolutionary & reformation things. Legally India is not interested in those matters. But your baseless & negative criticisms also indirectly highlight the good works of BCI. At least the sensible people might have viewed ur criticism in a different way, ‘BCI is serious in saving energy ’. This is the positive aspect even of that manufactured notice . The delay in reply is due to network problem in hill areas. Thanks.

We responded to his email this morning asking if he was implying that BCI secretary Ashok Kumar Pandey was responsible for forging the notice. We also clarified that we did not make the notice go viral, but that the notice had gone viral first on Twitter, and was then in fact published by legal website Bar & Bench several minutes before we did at Legally India, and then by the Huffington Post, Scoopwhoop, and Buzzfeed. [Editor’s note: also The Quint has now written about the notice, it now appears, though no offline media has covered it as far as we know].

Mishra in turn responded by email today (emphasis added):

If u carefully read my reply u will get the clarification, who did it ? is to b a aired. His sign has been xeroxed & misused. Who is Bar & Bench I don’t know. But this matter was neither related to Bar nor to Bench. But those who have no capacity to do any constructive things, try to earn cheap popularity by doing such petty & silly things.People don’t take cognisance of such things. U r supposed to act with all responsibility, if u r a sensible media. Thanks.Im not going to ask Bar or Bench in this regard. Else the man will b in illusion that he is succeeding in such mischief And that will result in downgrading d standard of Indian media . If he goes on doing such things he is bound to get a proper rerun from some body some day . Why sd I bother for him . But u informed me d truth , Thanks.

Full disclosure:

BCI chairman Manan Kumar Mishra has sent a defamation legal notice to Legally India regarding stories published pointing out the problems with the AIBE. Legally India in its response had denied defaming the BCI or its chairman since all reports were based on facts.

Mishra has also alleged bias of Legally India’s reporting of the BCI forcing a publisher’s electronic products onto law schools, nine months after that publisher sponsored a BCI party for lakhs of Rupees.

The original ‘forged’ notice