Nishant Khatri v. Bar Council of India & Anr.

1. This hearing has been done through hybrid mode.

2. The Petitioner - Nishant Khatri filed the present writ petition seeking directions against Respondent No.1 - Bar Council of India (hereinafter, ‘BCI’) in view of the non-conduct of the All India Bar Examination (`AIBE’). The Petitioner’s concern was that he ought not to be debarred from practising as an advocate due to the non-conduct of the AIBE.

3. It was submitted by the Petitioner that in terms of Rules 9 and 10 of the All India Bar Examination Rules, 2010 (hereinafter, ‘AIBE Rules, 2010’) the AIBE was introduced by the BCI on 5th June, 2010. The said exam is mandatory as per Rule 9 of the AIBE Rules, 2010, which provides that no advocate can practice under Chapter VI of the Advocates Act, 1961 without clearing the AIBE. Further, the AIBE is to be cleared by an advocate who is provisionally enrolled within a period of two years from the date of provisional enrolment.

4. Reliance was placed by the Petitioner on the minutes of meeting of the General Council of BCI dated 9th August, 2020 where in the period between 24th March, 2020 till 31st March, 2021 was exempted from the applicability of Rule 9 of the AIBE Rules 2010 due to the outbreak of the pandemic. It was also submitted that the last exam was conducted only in October, 2021 and thereafter no exam has been conducted.

5. In this background, the Court vide order dated 5th December, 2022 had issued the following directions:-

6. The status report was called from the BCI vide order dated 5th December, 2022. Today, Mr. Kunal Lakra, ld. Counsel appearing for the BCI relies upon the resolution passed by the BCI on 30th December, 2022 which reads as under:- “This is bring to your kind knowledge that General Council of the Bar Council of India has passed a resolution with regard to exemption of time period with regard to passing AIBE after Enrolment as an Advocate. The Resolution dated 3012.2022 is given below:- The Bar Council of India has been receiving requests from many Advocates that owing to the pandemic, they have suffered miserably. Many of them were not even able to take care of basic necessities of their families. If they were able to arrange for fooding they had difficulty in arranging for medication and health care. Many Advocates lost their near and dear ones during the time of pandemic. Inspite of the best efforts of Bar Council of India, State Bar Councils, various Bar Associations and many magnanimous Advocates, the legal fraternity as a whole suffered a lot due to closure of courts. Thereafter, hogging of virtual hearings by a certain segment of Advocates and also due to the reduction in the paying capacity of clients and reduction in the number of litigations owing to the pandemic, also led to a majority of the legal fraternity from being literally deprived of their right to livelihood. The Bar Council of India had earlier vide a resolution dated 29.7.2020 had exempted the period from 24th March to 31st March, 2021 from being counted as a necessary time period from the point of view of considering it within the requisite time period of two years from the date of enrolment, to clear the AIBE in order to further continue in practice. By way of this instant resolution, dated 30th December, 2022, it is hereby resolved that the period from the date of the last All India Bar exam held on 31st October, 2021 till-April, 2023, by which time, the result of the next AIBE is likely to be declared, is hereby exempted from being counted as a necessary time period from the point of view of considering it within the requisite time period of two years from the date of enrolment as an Advocate to pass AIBE. Thus, it is hereby resolved that this period shall remain exempted and shall not be counted while calculating the two year period from the date of enrolment for the purposes of counting the time period for clearing/passing AIBE.”

7. In addition, he relies upon the notification issued by the BCI for conduct of the AIBE-XVII examination. A perusal of the notification of the examination shows that the examination is to be held on 5th February, 2023. Resolution dated 30th December, 2022 also records that the results of the AIBE-XVII examination are likely to be declared before April, 2023. Thus, the entire period between 31st October, 2021 to April, 2023 has been exempted by the Bar Council of India for being counted for the necessary time period of two years.

8. In so far as the direction No. 13(iv) set out above in respect of having a pre-set schedule for conduct of the AIBE examination is concerned, ld. Counsel for the BCI submits that the same would be taken up and considered by the BCI in its next meeting. Accordingly, he prays for deferment of the present petition.

9. In this view of the matter, list this matter on 4th May, 2023 to enable the Bar Council of India to file a further status report in respect of the direction given in para 13 (iv) of order dated 5th December 2022, as extracted above.