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Bar Council of India's nightmare office move kills bar exam hotline

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Exclusive: The Bar Council of India (BCI) has abandoned its high-rent offices at short notice after less than four months in the premises, which has caused logistical difficulties and shut down the Airtel-operated bar exam telephone helplines for nearly a week now.

Only in mid-June the BCI moved to a new address at 225 Phase III in the Okhla Industrial Area, New Delhi (110020).

Less than four months later last week on 1 October with around one days' notice to staff, the roughly 40-person BCI office moved back to its original location in central Delhi at 21 Rouse Avenue Institutional Area (110002).

The rent for the previous premises was above what the BCI could afford and the budget the law ministry had made available to the BCI, according to a person with knowledge of the move.

This prompted the move back to the old premises which are owned by the BCI and were in the process of being renovated.

Following the shift, the telephone helpline for the all India bar exam is currently not operational.

It is understood that Airtel, the operator of the telephone line, has not yet responded to repeated BCI requests to forward the landline helpline numbers at the old address to the new address.

Internet connectivity has also not yet been installed at the premises, with BCI staff mainly relying on USB wireless broadband connections.

As of today around 10,000 applications for the bar exam have been received according to a BCI source, with the deadline for applications having been recently extended to the end of October.

The exam is scheduled to take place on 5 December.

The total number of law students graduating in 2010 is generally estimated to be between 50,000 and 60,000.

Photo by furryscaly

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