Exclusive: The Supreme Court may have set the stage for the next round of proceedings in the All India Bar Exam challenges after completing the summoning process but certainty has continued to elude thousands of law graduates, as only two out of six anti-exam petitioners are still in active pursuit of the case while the other four have become absentee litigants for most intents and purposes.
There has been little clarity since the Bar Council of India (BCI) approached the Supreme Court in July to club together nearly half of more than a dozen writ petitions against the bar exam in various high courts of the country. For one, it took almost more than two months to issue notices on the respondents to appear before the apex court.
Fingers have been pointed at various camps for the reasons of the delay, accusing both the BCI of delaying tactics as well as raising the question whether some petitioners perhaps missed the litigation boat.
One interested party commented: “They are all students, I don’t blame them. Probably they filed in a spurt of excitement and afterwards couldn’t make up their minds as to how to proceed. Being students they’re not aware of the day-to-day challenges [of litigation].”
The timing could not be worse as the application deadline was postponed for the second time to 15 November and the actual exam is set to take place only three weeks later on 5 December.
All this is compounded by the organisational headaches of the exam. "300 candidates from my college applied but only three or four people have received [study] materials so far - the rest have not received any,” complained one student who called Legally India today. He had asked for advice on whether the exam would go ahead or not and whether it would be prudent to pay the Rs 1,300 application fee.
A perception that is echoed by another student who preferred to remain anonymous was that the BCI would either postpone the exam or would set an easy paper to make sure that a maximum number of students pass.
The leads
The Supreme Court transfer petition of Bar Council of India vs Babubhai Vaghela & Ors (TP(C) No 697-702/2010) had grouped together six petitions that challenged the contentious bar exam soon after the proposal was first mooted.
Petitioners Babubhai Vaghela, M Radhakrishnan, Urshit Oza, Shyamlal Bhagure, Ashima Bindlish and Divya Sharma were included as the lead respondents in the transfer petition along with many co-respondents.
Only Nalsar Hyderabad graduate Fatehpal Singh, who was Divya Sharma’s co-petitioner, and the Aurangabad law student group led by Shyamlal Bhagure have consistently followed-up on the case by making timely representations in the apex court. Senior advocate Dushyant Dave and lawyer Anirudh Rajput are instructed as counsel for the Bhagure camp.
Fighting battle on his home turf of Punjab and Haryana (P&H), as well as in the Supreme Court, Fatehpal Singh told Legally India: “My matter is up for hearing before the P&H High Court. I will ask the High Court again to clarify on issue since the matter hasn’t been placed before the bench until now.” [Update 10 November: the Punjab & Haryana writ petition of Fatehpal Singh was deferred today until 1 December.]
After failing to get the interim stay application listed for hearing before the SC closed for Diwali vacation two weeks ago, Dave’s assistant Rajput now said that tomorrow morning (10 November) they would try to mention for listing before the Bench citing the Registrar's order.
Absent supporting cast
Co-respondent and one of the first challengers to the bar was Babubhai Vaghela, who is a seasoned Right to Information (RTI) activist from Gujarat. Vaghela told Legally India that he filed objections with the Supreme Court against it hearing the matter after the notice was hand-delivered to him over a month ago from the apex court.
He claimed that the BCI wanted to delay the case deliberately but added that he had not filed appearance with the Supreme Court and was instead waiting for the registrar to decide on the transfer petition. Until then, he said, the Gujarat High Court was still the place that the case should be heard.
“Whatever replies have come or not,” said Vaghela, “the registrar should put it up to the Chief Justice to decide and that he is not doing.”
Also co-respondents and one of the first to file a writ against the exam, a group of Gujarat students from LA Shah Law College in the case Urshit Oza & Ors have also not appeared in the Supreme Court. Oza explained that soon after the matter reached the Supreme Court they had withdrawn their petition by filing an application before the Gujarat High Court.
Oza told Legally India: “The day it was transferred to the SC, I had withdrawn my petition. But they still served me every 15 days. The status [of my petition] shows disposed of in the Gujarat High Court.”
The reason, he said, for exiting from the case was the clarity they had received from the BCI on the grounds on which they’d based their petition. “I’m from a three-year LLB course and even though I completed law in 2010, which was my third year for specialisation, my university granted me the graduation degree in 2009 itself. Specialisation for the Sanad has to be done in the last year,” he explained. “I have written to the Gujarat Bar Council and the BCI both. State bar council hasn't replied but the BCI informed me that I will need to give the bar exam. BCI says I’m falling under the same category.”
Oza added that he was no longer a party to the transfer petition by virtue of Gujarat High Court’s disposal of their writ.
Legally India was unable to contact the two other petitioners Ashima Bindlish and M Radhakrishnan.
However, all remain listed as co-respondents in the Supreme Court matter.
BCI’s take
The BCI’s standing counsel Sanjeev Sachdeva told Legally India that all the respondents have now been served. Staunchly denying any suggestion that the BCI was delaying the matter intentionally, he said that in fact the process was prolonged because some of the respondents deliberately declined to accept service. According to him this was done in the hope of receiving an interim stay.
He recounted that the BCI in some cases had to send their local bar council representatives to each person’s home in order to personally deliver the notices. Around 35 to 40 individuals in far-flung areas needed to be served, he added.
The BCI’s further plan of action would be decided only once the matter was listed before the bench, Sachdeva noted.
Role of the state bar councils
The state bar council have played along with the popular mood by showcasing their dissent towards the way the BCI has organised and planned the AIBE, and anecdotally some even telling local candidates they did not acknowledge the exam.
“Earlier around 11 state bar councils had decided to not cooperate with the BCI during their meeting in Hyderabad a month back”, a source close to a state bar council told Legally India.
And in October, the Madhya Pradesh Bar Council called for a token strike when approximately 80,000 lawyers boycotted courts for a single day. However, while expressing solidarity may have boosted student’s morale concrete defiance would have worked greater wonders said one student.
E-Day
Getting certainty from the courts now seems ever more unlikely and confusion is still rife amongst students. Only today Legally India received almost a dozen emails, messages and calls with bar exam queries.
Conversely, according to the BCI more than 20,000 applications have been received. This should be counted as a numerical success and the BCI continues to insist that the exam will certainly go ahead as planned, despite its backlog in dealing with applications and study materials. And the logistics of this exercise and exam day itself could yet buckle BCI infrastructure.
All that is clear is that right now, less than a month from exam day, this whole business is far from an open-and-shut case.
UPDATE 14 November 2011: The bar exam has been postponed to 6 March 2011.
Photo by comedynose
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why is bci doing things in hurry. when it had all the time why did bci choose in month of june to hold the exam from this year itself when it was given to understand that the exam would be held from the next year onwards.
We will be awarded Certificate of Practice after clearing of BCI Exam but we have no practical experience which we are entitled in court after enrollment as an advocate.
I am sure that U (@2) r not a law student at all because 2009-10 law students never support bar exam at all. It's foolish act to support such kind of bar exam
these are not some story books which can be read in such a short span. if law was so easy, everybody would have opted for this profession. it takes lot of time to understand the sections / articles and well..............i would say, we are going to have a real hard time. only if u have read the subject properly will u be able to search in the open-book exam. i hope u all receive your materials soon.
all the best to each one from 2009-10 batch. it was nice sneaking into this website. now i shall sneak into my study materials. amen!!
For me apart from questioning the wisdom of instituting a bar exam in such a hurry, the decision to ask rainmaker to design the course (and exam?) must be questioned. I have gone through the prep material and my concerns have been confirmed, these guys may be a bunch of smart nsl grads but the material has very little connection to litigation and is their view of how law exams should be held. What has been the BCIs input on this?
They have diluted the case by delay tactics.
Would the pending cases in the SC and HCs be weakened if more graduates registered? If not, it seems to me that it would be wise to hedge ones bets by registering for the exam rather than relying on winning the case in the SC. I write from personal experience.
While the opposition to the bar Exam may be justified, self interest should dictate that one registers and passes the exam. Further, given the row that has erupted, pass percentage in this (the first) exam is likely to be much more than future editions. Due consideration is likely to be given to the fact that candidates have had very little time to prepare and also as an incentive for future batches.
@2 Please understand the ground we are fighting for and dont jst say things on ur beliefs put ur self in our shoes n only thn comment we are not fools that we are stdying for 5 years n then have our lives determined one stupid exam the information of which is still on the tabloids and net.
U wanna make us give our exam, thn amend the act say and PROVE it BEYOND REASONABLE DOUBT it is a necessity and give us the syllabus and not file cases and do insane things and blame the student body. Mark my words when I say that once this is done NOT ONE STUDENT WOULD SAY NO to this exam we have stdyied fr 5 yrs and not scared of one more DAMN PAPEr..
What Happened in BAR EXAM CASE IN SC ? any one know ?
Bunch of jokers, if you allow us to blog in your site be prepared to be [...].
Sorry for filthy language but [...] should be kicked off.
hey can one tell me what this means, IS legally india taking the side of the BCI or what???
i fail to understand that why LI is becomming partial towards t power group, if LI intends to be a impartial newsagency then it should act like that.
KIAN u r co-author f it, plz explian, bty u r not replying to the post these days r u on vacation or u dnt intentd to do so :-x
again not studyng boy
Hey Dexter whtz up ;-) koun jali kisiki :P
NO Doubt BCI is playing with our career.......!
We are going to loss our valuable 1 year ....in this rubbish game of BCI.
We are going to late to built our career.
"Mr BCI Chairman this is nt fair.......?
mind it.........!
"I Think thr is Need of one Another WRIT PETETION AGAINST BCI...?
if any student could not pass this exam then who is responsible for his loss?
Some officials are said that students are not getting good education because of not well infra structured institutions and some collages are only degree distributing centers.
But the key point is that who is the supervising authority Are they sleeping from so many years ?
The real suffers are the students. Who will compensate their loss of five years in case they could not pass exam.
These peoples don't have that much guts to shut down these collages. But they can allow these types collages to loot students.
What can we aspect from the system???????
Do you have any idea about Supreme Court's case regarding EBCI exam and when is the next date?
When the case is in pending how can they conduct the exam without proper decision. If you know anything pls let us know. We are all in big confusion.
No.# 4, Mr. Lalit Gantra, what you mentioned is absolutely correct. 2009-10 law students never support this kind of bar exam at all. It's foolish act to support such kind of bar exam.
Still I don't understand what bci is going to gain with this type of exam conducting with 100 multiple choice questions that too open book exam.
If BCI wants quality instead of quantity, they must cancel all the reservations and conduct this type of exam in the beginning at the time of admission.
Now, exactly 30 days left for the exam god knows what will happen to the career of the new law graduates.
Best of luck to all.
Thanks friends.
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