The Bar Council of India (BCI) has published the question papers of 9 out of the 13 bar exams that it has held since the inception of the All India Bar Examination (AIBE).

The complete question papers of AIBE 4 through AIBE 12 are now available on the official AIBE website - the AIBEs that had been held with private contractor ITES Horizon Pvt Ltd. These nine papers exclude the inaugural four AIBEs that were held by the BCI in collaboration with private contractor Rainmaker.

The AIBE is a three-hour-long 100-mark open book exam with 100 questions and no negative marking.

The BCI charges a hefty fee of Rs 2,560 to apply for the AIBE but has not provided the preparatory materials that were part of the initially-promised receivables. Timelines for the conduct of the exam and the availability of the result and certificates of practice to advocates have also been unreliable (though its most recent scheduling of 13th exam for 23 December is its most on-time effort yet).

Could this and the upload of previous years’ question papers be a sign that the BCI has begun to show signs of trying to at least provide some transparency about the compulsory exam?

That said, the BCI has never published pass rates or other statistics related to the AIBE. And, in the spirit of making the AIBE better, do share below what you think about the quality of questions in the exam - there have been plenty of complaints in past years...

Download the previous question papers here (via BCI):

• AIBE IV
• AIBE V
• AIBE VI
• AIBE VII
• AIBE VIII
• AIBE IX
• AIBE X
• AIBE XI
• AIBE XII

Photo by comedynose