“Legal education needs to be improved and the Bar Council of India needs to reform itself,” Law Commission chairman and retired Supreme Court judge Balbir Singh Chauhan told the Economic Times in an exclusive interview.

A Supreme Court bench of justices Anil R Dave, Kurian Joseph and Adarsh Kumar Goel yesterday asked the Law Commission to consider whether the Bar Council of India (BCI) is a suitable regulator of the legal profession within six months.

A South Korean citizen who graduated from JGLS Sonepat last year is facing a dead end at the Bar Council of India (BCI), on her application to take the All India Bar Exam (AIBE). She took admission to JGLS relying on the reciprocity clause in the Advocates Act 1961.

On 1 June, Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman Manan Kumar Mishra sent Legally India reporter Prachi Shrivastava an email making a number of allegations against her, and Legally India editor Kian Ganz, after Prachi had asked Mishra for a comment on why the BCI had forced all law schools to buy products from the All India Reporter (AIR).

The Bar Council of India (BCI) has still not complied with its statutory duty under the Right to Information (RTI) Act 2005, more than six weeks after the Central Information Commission (CIC) threatened to impose maximum penalty on BCI chairman Manan Kumar Mishra, if the BCI continues in its non-compliance of the law.

The main All India Bar Exam (AIBE) website, http://www.allindiabarexamination.com/ is offline for “maintenance”, around two weeks after Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman Manan Kumar Mishra said the bar exam contract with unqualified contractor ITES Horizon Pvt Ltd had expired.

The Bar Council of India (BCI) has been a victim of the “sinister game” of a “mischief doer” who forged the BCI’s ‘LIFT’ restrictions notice that went viral on Saturday, BCI chairman Manan Kumar Mishra told Legally India via email.

In November 2013 the Bar Council of India (BCI) amended its Legal Education Rules 2008 and, for years following that (as reported by us last week), has been sending repeated letters to law schools, telling them it was obligatory to buy lakhs worth of products of the All India Reporter (AIR).

“)The Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman Manan Kumar Mishra will deduct one day’s salary from BCI staff “below the rank of assistant secretary” and “sweepers or other outsourced employees” who are caught using lifts at the BCI’s Rouse Avenue office in Delhi.

The Bar Council of India’s (BCI) chairman Manan Kumar Mishra has responded to our request for comment on the news that the BCI had again amended bylaws to prescribe law schools to buy the All India Reporter’s (AIR) products, despite protests from vice chancellors and having agreed two years ago that such a requirement to buy from a single vendor was unfair.

There are now “about 20 lakh” lawyers in India, according to Bar Council of India chairman Manan Kumar Mishra. The BCI’s data on lawyers’ verification has revealed that Delhi has the maximum number of “fake” lawyers.

“)The Bar Council of India (BCI) has again tried to sell All India Reporter (AIR) case reports to law schools, even expanding the obligatory catalogue of electronic AIR publications law college libraries must stock, despite having agreed two years ago that such a requirement to buy from a single vendor was unfair.

“Bar associations are facing a very serious identity crisis and good lawyers are unfortunately not willing to participate in the democratic process in bar associations. As a result, most bar association have been hijacked by those lawyers who don’t have a serious stake in the institution or those who have a personal agenda, but not the welfare of the bar.”

Results for the ninth All India Bar Exam (AIBE) may finally be nearly available on the official website, although first reports suggest that the link doesn’t actually work.

The results to the All India Bar Exam (AIBE) 9 will be out on or before 20 May, as each candidate’s answer sheet now finally stands evaluated, assured the Bar Council of India (BCI) today following two missed official deadlines.

The results to the All India Bar Exam (AIBE) 9 will be out on 16 May, announced the Bar Council of India (BCI) on the official bar exam website:

The government is considering replacing regulators for the the legal, medical, chartered accountancy, cost accountancy, and company secretarial professions.

The All India Bar Exam (AIBE) IX’s results are tentatively expected to be released next week, running one month behind schedule.

In a petition in which the Madras high court directed the Bar Council of India (BCI) not to enrol lawyers who were in the civil service, and to conduct more stringent pre-enrolment checks of law graduates older than 40, to ensure they went to a proper law college rather than having obtained a mail order degree.

The Bar Council of India (BCI) has not satisfactorily complied with the Right to Information Act 2005 (RTI Act) provision which requires that it publish all its affairs on its website, held the Central Information Commission (CIC). The CIC said it is inclined to impose maximum penalty on the BCI if it doesn’t comply in a definite amount of time.