The All India Bar Exam (AIBE) will be held on 8 January 2012, after the Bar Council of India (BCI) had originally scheduled the exam for December 2011 in its 4 September 2011 resolution.

Last week British lawyers made a push for India again with Lord Chancellor and justice secretary Ken Clarke turning up with entourage and rekindling the liberalisation talks that had become a little tepid of late. But are they following the right strategy?

Exclusive interview: Following a high-powered UK delegation’s meeting with the Indian law minister and the Bar Council of India (BCI), ex-Allen & Overy (A&O) partner and current Law Society of England & Wales president John Wotton says he is optimistic about the progress of Indian legal market liberalisation.

He is not the first foreign lawyer to have felt that way.

Yesterday’s closed-door afternoon meeting between UK justice secretary Kenneth Clarke, Indian law minister Salman Kursheed and Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman Ashok Parija stopped short of reaching an agreement on the entry of foreign law firms but the countries would trial cooperation on the legal education front for the next six months.

Exclusive: The Bar Council of India has scheduled the next All India Bar Exam (AIBE) for December 2011 but acknowledging “practical difficulties” will allow graduates to practice in courts if they give an affidavit to pass the AIBE in December.

The Bar Council of India’s (BCI) counter-affidavit filed in the AK Balaji Chennai case against 31 foreign law firms said that the BCI has decided not to relax the restrictions prohibiting foreign lawyers from practising and that the issue raised by the writ was “no longer res integra” because it had been settled in the 2009 Lawyers Collective case.

Legally India understands that the BCI’s thinking is that internal disparities at the Indian bar need to be eradicated through reform before making any decision on foreign firms.

Only 69 per cent of 11,752 bar exam test takers managed to clear the second All India Bar Exam (AIBE), as only 56 per cent of those re-taking the test for the second time managed to clear.

The Bar Council of India (BCI) has elected a new chairman and vice chairman after solicitor general Gopal Subramanium resigned as solicitor general, according to Law et al. News.

On the day of the second All India Bar Exam (AIBE) today PTI reported at least 500 lawyers protested outside one of two exam halls in Chennai, where the first exam in March had to be cancelled due to unrest.

Mumbai, exhibiting that clichéd resilience much loved by commentators, continued with its business despite taking shocks and wild media rumours that would dent the spirits of many other cities. While the financial capital continues to live, the legal profession faced its own share of shocks: one new Anglo-Indian best friendship, a new law minister and the loss of its solicitor general and probably also the Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman.

The government has accepted solicitor general Gopal Subramanium’s resignation yesterday. Subramanium’s continuing chairmanship of the Bar Council of India (BCI) remains uncertain.

The Bar Council of India (BCI) said today that over 13,000 candidates applied to take the second All India Bar Exam (AIBE), which is set to take place on 24 July after it was postponed by a month in May.

Breaking: The second All India Bar Exam (AIBE) has been postponed by one month to 24 July, to avoid a clash with other exams and encourage further applications.

Exclusive: The All India Bar Exam (AIBE) matter pending as a transfer petition before the Supreme Court is not likely to be taken up for another four to five months as the apex court registry awaits submissions of papers from various high courts.

All India Bar Exam (AIBE) candidates can now apply for the online for the exam.

The next All India Bar Exam (AIBE) will take place on 26 June 2011 for those re-taking the first exam and new candidates, said the Bar Council of India (BCI) today in a statement, adding that certificates of practice were in the process of being prepared.

Exclusive: The second All India Bar Exam (AIBE) was likely to take place on 12 June 2011, said Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman Gopal Subramanium last week, offering re-takes for the 5,700-odd candidates who failed the first exam or those who did not register or sit for the first exam.

Exclusive: The Bar Council of India (BCI) is to take 20 lawyers on secondment from law firms to help it regulate transactional law practice better, said BCI chairman Gopal Subramanium and Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) chairman Lalit Bhasin on Friday.

Most candidates in the All India Bar Exam (AIBE) scored only 10 marks short of failing, reveal the Bar Council of India’s (BCI) detailed statistics published today. Almost 82 per cent of graduates taking the test in English passed but a staggering two thirds sitting the exam in Gujarati or Kannada failed, with Gujarat and Karnataka as states also seeing the lowest pass rates between 42 and 55 per cent respectively.

The All India Bar Exam (AIBE) in Chennai, which was originally slated for 6 March but postponed to 27 March due to local unrest, has again been postponed to an undecided future date due to Tamil Nadu legislative assembly elections.