Law grads get ready for open-book Bar exam

As many as 22,281 candidates have registered to appear for the All India Bar Examination (AIBE) to be conducted by the Bar Council of India (BCI) on March 6.

The exam has been made mandatory for law graduates following a Supreme Court order. Only those who pass the exam will be eligible to take up law as a profession.

Earlier, the exam was scheduled to be held on December 5 last. However, the Council postponed it to March 6. "The degree examination results in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh were delayed, because of which we postponed the exam to March," said VB Coutinho, director, legal studies, BCI.

The study material has been sent to the candidates, and they are allowed to carry the same to the exam hall. "It is an open-book exam, and candidates can use the reference material. However, if they keep referring to the study material for every other question, they will fall short of time," Coutinho said.

About 8,000 candidates registered from the four south Indian states. "We are working out the state-wide statistics and it will be available in a day or two," he said.

According to the Bar Council officials, the number of graduates pursuing law as a profession is declining every year. "Most of the law graduates take up opportunities at multinational companies, and are not opting for practice. And the few who do opt for practice have only the basic knowledge of law, which is why the exam has been made compulsory," an official said.

The Bar exam will mainly assess the capabilities of law graduates at basic level. It also addresses candidate's analytical abilities and basic knowledge of law. The registration of candidates for the exam will be under Section 24 of the Advocates' Act 1961. The candidates must submit a proof for their enrolment.

The exam will be conducted in nine languages, including English and Kannada. According to the statistics available with the Indian Bar Council, 1,241 candidates are appearing for the exam from the Bangalore centre and 469 from the Dharwad centre.

"A total of 906 candidates are registered to write the exam in Kannada," said Coutinho.
Advocates have to answer questions from twenty subjects, taken from the syllabus set by the BCI for three- and five-year LLB courses.