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AIBE 2022: Supreme Court constitution bench reserves judgement on validity of the All India Bar Exam

Supreme Court of India's constitution bench has reserved its judgement regarding the petitions challenging the validity of the All India Bar Exam. The matter was heard by the five judge constitutional bench and was reserved on September 28, 2022. More details shared below.

Danita Yadav

Updated Sep 29, 2022, 22:14 IST

Supreme Court constitution bench reserves judgement on validity of the AIBE

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As the Supreme Court of India continues to make the top headlines this week, the constitution bench of the SC has decided to reserve its judgement on the petitions challenging the validity of the All India Bar Exam. The judgement was reserved on September 28, 2022.

The matter was heard by the 5-judge constitution bench comprising of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Sanjiv Khanna, AS Oka, Vikram Nath and JK Maheshwari. The bench has decided to reserve its judgement.

The case was presented by Attorney General of India and Senior Advocate K.K. Venugopal and the amicus curiae, Senior Advocate K.V. Vishwanathan. They called into question the correctness of the law laid down in V. Sudeer v. Bar Council of India & Anr. and pushed for a pre-enrollment exam.

The main agenda of the hearing was to allow a pre-enrollment exam, which would ideally help law graduates save time and appear for the AIBE exam in their final year of law college. However, as per the current eligibility criteria of the All India Bar Exam, law graduates must be registered and enrolled with their state bar councils before appearing for the bar exam.

The Supreme Court has not announced the date of when this matter will be heard next. AIBE SC hearing comprises of mainly three main issues -

Can the Bar Council of India prescribe a pre-enrollment exam as a condition precedent for enrollment?
Can the council prescribe pre-enrollment training in terms of its training rules issued in 1995
If a pre-enrollment exam is not permitted, can BCI prescribe a post enrollment exam in alignment with Section 49 (1) (ah) of the Advocates Act, 1961.

Presently, candidates must register as advocates with their respective state bar councils in order to become eligible to appear for the bar exam. Arguments presented in front of the SC Constitution bench have stated that a pre enrollment exam is much more suitable as it would determine the eligibility of the law graduate before becoming an advocate.

Supreme Court has stated that the decision of whether AIBE should be a pre-enrollment or post enrollment exam is in the hands of the Bar Council of India.

All India Bar Exam, AIBE was introduced by the Bar Council of India in 2010. Any law graduate who has completed their 3 years LLB or 5 Years LLB course and has successfully registered with their state medical councils after 2010 must appear for this exam in order to practice law in India.

Upon clearing the AIBE Exam, Bar Council of India awards the Certificate of Practice to the advocate, which allows them to practice law in the country.

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