In the fourth and fifth All India Bar Exams (AIBE) in 2012 and 2013, 80 per cent and 73 per cent respectively passed the exam out of a total of 58,631 persons who applied for the test, revealed a Right to Information (RTI) request filed by advocate Kush Kalra with the Bar Council of India (BCI).
Unlike for the first three exams, the BCI had stopped disclosing pass rates and statistics for the AIBE after hiring external contractor ITES Horizon Pvt Ltd to carry out the exam.
Figures for the sixth AIBE held in January 2014 were not available in the RTI response.
The interval between exams has been from five to 11 months, with AIBE 5 having taken place eight months after the previous exam (AIBE 7 too, is currently on track for an eight month gap after having been postponed to 7 September 2014).
The available figures, past, present & future
| Total applied | Total passed | Pass rate | Months since last AIBE | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AIBE 7 (scheduled 7 Sep 2014) | n/a | n/a | n/a | 8+ |
| AIBE 6 (Jan 2014) | ? | ? | ? | 5 |
| AIBE 5 (Aug 2013) | 23,350 | 17,056 | 73% | 8 |
| AIBE 4 (Dec 2012) | 35,281 | 28,313 | 80% | 11 |
| AIBE 3 (Jan 2012) | 24,844 | 14,740 | 63% | 5 |
| AIBE 2 (July 2011) | 12,158 | 69% | 4 | |
| AIBE 1 (Mar 2011) | 19,802 | 71% | - |
Assuming that each candidate pays around Rs 1,900 for the exam, the lawyers’ regulator could have made revenues of up to Rs 11.1 crore out of the AIBE 4 and 5, after fees were raised from Rs 1,300.
Assuming, more realistically, that around 30 per cent of candidates were repeat exam takers who only have to pay Rs 1,400 in fees, total revenues would be around Rs 10.3 crore of revenues.
ITES is understood to retain around Rs 600 per candidate (it is not certain whether this varies for retakers), for a total of up to Rs 3.5 crore out of AIBE 4 and 5, leaving at least Rs 6.8 crore to the regulator as AIBE revenues.
The total revenues for the first three AIBEs were only Rs 6.89 crore, though the lion’s share of those fees – 70 per cent – went to the external contractor Rainmaker.
Fees since the AIBE 6 are now at Rs 2,500 per candidate.
| Total candidates | Fees / candidate | Total max revenues (assuming no retakes) | Contractor max revenues (ITES: @ Rs 600 / candidate) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AIBE 6 | ? | Rs 2,500 | ? | ? |
| AIBE 5 | 23,350 | Rs 1,900 | Rs 4.4 crore | ITES: Rs 1.4 crore |
| AIBE 4 | 35,281 | Rs 1,900 | Rs 6.7 crore | ITES: Rs 2.12 crore |
| AIBE 1, 2 & 3 | 56,804 | Rs 1,300 | Rs 6.89 crore | Rainmaker: Rs 4.8 crore |
Kalra has filed a number of RTI’s with the BCI and other bodies, of which one revealed a break-down of lawyer numbers per state – which the BCI was not able to provide a response to in this RTI.
Comments
What if they had applied the same effort in quietly practising law??
Key being, who (if any) are the competitors to Rainmaker - or will they become a de-facto monopoly?!
On the other hand, is this a smooth 'annuity' model where the Rainmaking systems/processes have simply taken over - and the shareholders just withdraw royalty periodically from sunny beaches (after we all, these numbers are Bound to keep going up)?!
I am sure every practicing lawyer thinks about whether he/she will be required, even 30 years later, to read a dull Brief (or draft a dull agreement) early morning, just because some extra cash is needed for whatever!
Us and our existentiality issues... back to my dull trudge!
Kian, Can you confirm?
However, if I remember rightly, RM and the BCI did have a kerfuffle about the copyright of the preparatory materials, which was held jointly by the BCI and RM, when the RM contract ended.
So the BCI killed the prep materials and went without preparatory materials for future AIBEs.