The All India Bar Exam (AIBE) run by the Bar Council of India (BCI) has been postponed for a month after a delayed website redesign.
The website at http://allindiabarexamination.com/, which was offline for more than three weeks since 29 March until yesterday with a link pointing to a temporary copy of the original site at http://www.allindiabarexam.co.in/, has now been relaunched with a new design (see screenshot above).
Online registrations for the next AIBE opened yesterday (21 April).
In March the seventh AIBE had been scheduled to be “conducted tentatively” on 29 June 2014, but in the latest notification the date has been set as 27 July 2014, with the proviso that the Bar “Council reserves the right to extend the said examination date in case of unavoidable circumstances. In that case, any request for refund/adjustment of fee shall not be entertained”.
The fees for the AIBE were increased to Rs 2,500 fees plus Rs 60 in bank charges in October 2013 for the sixth AIBE, with no concession for repeat candidates who failed a previous exam.
In October 2012 the AIBE fees were increased by 50 per cent to Rs 1,900 plus State Bank of India charges of Rs 50 and Rs 1,450 for repeat examinees, when Noida-based private contractor ITeS Horizon Private Limited took over to help the BCI run the AIBE.
Before that the AIBE fees were only Rs 1,300 for first-time exam takers and Rs 900 for repeat examinees.
From the first three AIBEs at those rates a total of Rs 6.9 crore in fees were generated, with 70 per cent going to another private contractor and 30 per cent to the BCI.
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Comments
The AIBE has practically never been held on time. One excuse after another have meant that the AIBE has often been postponed one day before the scheduled date of the exam. Does the BCI not care about the inconvenience and costs to the lawyers (or those who want to be one?)because of its inefficiency and incompetence? The situation has become so bad that they have started inserting a disclaimer "reserving their right" to unilaterally change the date of the bar exam as per their convenience, and denying the right to refund to a person who has paid 2500 Rs. Basically, the BCI is saying that we can be incompetent and inefficient, and we will charge you Rs. 2500 for that!
It really hurts me to see the state of the BCI. IT IS ONE OF THE WORST PROFESSIONAL BODIES I HAVE EVER SEEN -- full of stupid people who are careless, corrupt and want to do little else than wield power, and make money. What's worst is that the BCI shows all the traits that the rule of law warns us against! Ridiculous and shameful.
A 10 year old would be able to better administer the Indian legal profession than these nincompoops.