Supreme Court allows final year students to appear for AIBE 19

Supreme Court allows final year students to appear for AIBE 19.

The Apex Court in a major relief to law students has allowed final year law students to appear in the All-India Bar Examination which is scheduled to take place on 24^th November 2024 (Expected). This interim order was passed by a bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud, along with Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra while hearing a petition filed by final year students of LL. B at Campus Law Centre and Law Centre – 1, Faculty of Law, University of Delhi, challenging the recent Bar Council of India (BCI) notification concerning eligibility for the AIBE Exam.  

Notably, that today’s order can be seen as a resultant of the BCI previous order of not allowing the final year’s law students to appear in this year’s AIBE 19 Exam. In retribution to this order, 9 final year law students filed a petition before the Supreme Court and challenged the BCI Order. Accordingly, a writ of mandamus directing the BCI to allow the petitioners to undertake the AIBE 19 has been sought.   

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The petitioners argued that the prohibition of final year law students from appearing in the All-India Bar Examination was in contravention to the dictum of the constitution bench of the Supreme Court in Bar Council of India v. Bonnie Foi Law College. As per the para no. 38 of Bonnie Foi Law College decision, the constitution bench stated that students who have cleared the case  

“We are inclined to accept the suggestion from the learned Amicus that students who have cleared all exams required to pursue the final semester of their law course may be allowed to take the AIBE Exam provided that they present proof the results of the exams will however only be valid if the candidate has passed all the components of their course and will remain valid only for a specific period of time.”   

The Supreme Court told today that the rules were being framed and four to six weeks may be given. “This judgment was delivered in February 2023, what was the BCI doing” a miffed CJI asked the BCI Council in response.  

During the hearing, the BCI stated that it needed time to frame rules regarding final year law students. The bench responded that while the BCI could take time to formulate these rules, it should ensure that final years students do not lose a year. While directing to the BCI the SC also said that, “we are conscious of the fact that is absence of such a direction, students who have no control over their final year results would be left in the lurch,”.  

Citation of the Case: Nilay Rai & Ors. Vs. Bar Council of India W.P.(C)No 577of 2024  

Advocates A. Velan and Navpreet Kaur appeared for the petitioners.