The 15th All India Bar Exam (AIBE) has been postponed yet again, this time to early 2021.

Online registrations for AIBE XV, which is held in physical test centres, have been extended to 3 December 2020, with the exam slated for 24 January 2021, according to a notification of the BCI on the AIBE web site.

Even in non-pandemic days the BCI’s compulsory AIBE was very rarely held on time so precisely no one will be surprised by the latest postponement in the midst of continuing national and global Covid-19 mayhem.

And although the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) had pulled off a bigger physical exam than the AIBE, the BCI does not seem like the type to consider alternative ways of holding the exam.

However, this total six-month delay now may leave 2020 graduates keen to practice in the courts in a bit of a lurch, seeing as technically having passed the exam within two years of graduation is obligatory before being allowed to do practise. Then again, no courts are fully operational these days and who knows whether the AIBE requirements will be completely enforced at this time.

Correction 18:41: As pointed out by a commenter, the BCI has passed a one-year amnesty this year until 31 March 2021 about passing the exam.

The exam was originally scheduled for 16 August but was postponed indefinitely in July 2020.

Then, in August, a tentative new date was announced for 8 November 2020.