Just when you thought no more delays were possible with this 10th All India Bar Exam (AIBE), which is already running on a razor-tight timetable, the Bar Council of India (BCI) has quietly amended a two-day old notification, delaying the release of candidates’ exam admit cards by two days to 18 March 2017, which is only 8 days before the exam date of 26 March.

The original notification number AIBE/WS/083, dated 14 March 2017, had been uploaded to the official AIBE website around two days ago stating that admit cards would be released on 16 March 2017 (today) after 10pm.

However, today, that same notification on the website carrying the same reference number, was very subtly amended and now states that admit cards would only be released two days later, on 18 March 2017, after 10am.

The original notification is currently still preserved on Google’s cache of the page, which we have screenshotted above a screengrab of the new notification.

Tragedy of errors

Of course, this is not the first delay or quiet change the BCI and its underperforming and secretly re-appointed contractor ITES Horizon Pvt Ltd have tried to slip by AIBE X candidates and the media:

• the AIBE X syllabus now also contains tax, public interest litigation (PIL), IP and land acquisition, while having dropped three other subjects.
• AIBE X fees were also hiked by 40% to Rs 3,500.
• Early AIBE X applicants had to re-do their applications.
• Meanwhile, telephone helplines were all but impossible to reach for more than half the sign-up window.
• AIBE X was announced on 4 January to take place a massive 11 months after the previous exam, on 26 February 2017.
• On 18 January, the BCI postponed this by a month to the current date of 26 March.

Previous exams conducted by BCI and ITES have also suffered from major delays, with some practice certificates for the ninth AIBE having taken more than nine months to arrive after the exam was held.