All India Bar Examination – Facts, Reality and Law

While our readers may have been feeling a gross ignorance on our part to the highly debate issue of examination proposed by the Bar Council of India as a qualification to practice and that a lot has been written on the issue except on this blog, we have refrained for purpose to express our opinion for reasons better not revealed here. Nonetheless we have before us a recent update from SSRN wherein a paper entitled "All India Bar Examination – Facts, Reality and Law" is doing the round and having had a look at that we felt compelled to post this update on the blog.  

The paper, written by John Verghese (Assistant Professor,  Government Law College, Kozhikode, Kerala) explores the laws and controversies relating to bar examinations across the globe, in particular the United States of America, Brazil, Hungary and France and having given an overview of the Indian position also makes interesting insights on the issues and controversies surrounding the recent proposal by the Bar Council of India. The paper makes a near-exhaustive review of the Rules of the Bar Council relating to the practice of advocates in the country and the propositions of law / grounds on which the validity of such examination can be challenged. In all, an interesting read and update for all those curious to examine the legal perspectives of the issue :)

 

The abstract reads as under;

The Bar Council of India has proposed to go ahead with the All India Bar Examination, despite opposition from a wide section of law students and lawyers. While the objective of All India Bar Examination to bring standardisation in the quality of legal professionals is laudable, there are a lot of issues surrounding the All India Bar Examination, including the manner in which it is being conducted and the legal provisions enabling such a step. This article examines the legal position regarding the All India Bar Examination proposed to be conducted by the Bar Council of India, in the light of the previous decisions of the Honorable Supreme Court in this regard. It also attempts at a comparative analysis of the position of bar examination as it is undertaken in different countries. The earlier text has been revised considerably to include a comprehensive analysis of legal provisions and comparative position in other countries where bar examination is an essential requirement for entry into legal profession as well.